Last Updated on 2024-07-25
Jeff Healey is a Canadian singer, guitarist, and songwriter with outstanding achievements in blues, rock, and jazz.
He achieved million-album sales worldwide in the 1980s and 1990s.
And at that time, with the song《Angel Eyes》, it won the fifth place in the US Billboard Hot 100.
《Angel Eyes》
1. Jeff Healey
Jeff Healey was born in Toronto, Canada in 1966.
He became visually-impaired at the age of 1 from Retinoblastoma (a type of eye-cancer that most often occurs in children) , and had to undergo surgery to remove both eyes and fitted with prosthetic eyes.
He got his first guitar at the age of 3 and developed a unique playing style – playing the guitar in a sitting position with the guitar flat on the lap, as if playing a piano.
However, in some of Jeff Healey’s Live performances, you can find that if the current performance atmosphere is high, Jeff Healey’s enthusiasm for music will also be ignited.
At this time, he will stand up and play excitedly, and directly render his emotions to the entire performance environment, making the audience burst out in the high atmosphere!
2. The Jeff Healey Band
Jeff Healey founded the band《Blue Direction》at the age of 15 and also began hosting jazz & blues shows on CIUT-FM (Toronto’s radio station).
Afterwards, Jeff Healey was introduced, and together with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen formed a Trio Band《The Jeff Healey Band》.
Later, the band successively created countless outstanding songs.
3. The Last Album
However, in 2005 Jeff Healey suffered from cancerous malignancy on his leg .
He underwent surgery to remove the tumor in early 2007, but passed away on March 2, 2008, in his hometown of Toronto, at the age of 41.
And that day was nine days before the release of his final album《Mess of Blues》.
4. How Did I Discover Jeff Healey
# 4.1. Unintentionally, The First Song I Heard
The reason I discovered Jeff Healey was that I accidentally heard the song《Angel Eyes》while randomly playing the songs recommended by Spotify, which was the first song I heard of Jeff Healey.
Just the first half and the middle half were already attracted by the somewhat melancholy tone, but when it came to the second half of the song, the guitar solo at the end deeply shocked me.
# 4.2. Find Other Songs
Just after I listened to《Angel Eyes》and was moved by Jeff Healey’s songs, of course I continued to listen to his other songs and look for his live performance!
When I found his Live video, I discovered that unique way of playing – the guitar on the lap playing style (I didn’t know Jeff Healey was visually-impaired at this time).
At that time, I thought: “Wow! This person is so avant-garde! So he can play the guitar like that?!”
# 4.3. Jeff Healey’s Playing Style
Then, I had a question — is there a reason why he plays like that?
My first instinct is that Jeff Healey should have found his way to this instrument from the very beginning when he first encountered the guitar.
Then I went to find information about Jeff Healey and found that he was visually-impaired as a child. At this time, I was shocked by Jeff Healey again. In this state, he can still play the guitar so well!
5. Conclusion
Jeff Healey’s passion for music, and his unique emotional expression, has profoundly influenced some of the goals I set while learning music, and is one of those musicians who means a lot to me.
So the passing of Jeff Healey is really sad news for me.
However, I believe that Jeff Healey’s enthusiasm must not only touched me deeply. From the comments below the YouTube, we can find that there are indeed many people around the world who were moved by Jeff Healey.
" Canada's legendary visually-impaired guitarist, Jeff Healey, has seen the whole world in the form of swaying music. "
6. Song Sharing
At the end of the article, I will recommend you 3 more Jeff Healey songs !
(Jeff Healey has too many good songs, this article only introduces a part of them)
