Street Spirit
Jeff Healey
BY Sarah Liss March 05, 2008 15:03
March 25, 1966-March 2, 2008
As most folks affiliated with the national music industry gear up for Canadian Music Week, which kicks off tonight (March 6), the country’s music scene has suffered a major loss. After a valiant battle with cancer, guitar ace Jeff Healey — one of the cornerstones of this city’s jazz and blues scenes — passed away March 2 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto. Healey weathered the recurrence of the disease that had been a part of his life since childhood — a rare form of cancer left him blind as a baby — with the same dignity, strength and grace he brought to the rest of his life and career, planning international tours and the forthcoming release of Mess of Blues, his first blues-rock album in years, even as he endured radiation and chemotherapy treatments throughout 2007.
Though many took Healey for granted, he was a vital and hugely influential part of the Toronto music scene. The Toronto-born artist had a solid reputation as a stellar guitarist at home and abroad; in addition to releasing nine albums, he inspired and appeared in the 1989 Patrick Swayze film Road House and worked with the likes of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But Healey also maintained his investment in grassroots music culture, nurturing emerging artists like Amanda Marshall and Terra Hazelton, as well as holding down a weekly residency with his Jazz Wizards group at his eponymous clubs, where he performed the classic American jazz tunes from the ’20s and ’30s he held so dear.
One of Healey’s greatest legacies was the establishment of those unpretentious music venues — first, Healey’s on Bathurst, and later (since December 2007) the gussied-up Jeff Healey’s Roadhouse at 56 Blue Jays Way. In a music community often ruled by faddish pop and stylish next-big-things, Healey devoted his time and energy to supporting generally untrendy blues and jazz acts who might not otherwise have been able to find their voices. No public memorial had been planned as of press time, though Healey’s Roadhouse will host a number of CMW showcases. Jeff Healey will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.
Conference confab
Generally, the conference component of any major music festival offers little to lure your average rock, pop or hip-hop fan to badly lit hotel rooms. This year’s Canadian Music Week chat sessions, though, are surprisingly strong when it comes to both the talent level of the talking heads and the topics they’re addressing. All events are at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel (100 Front W.) unless otherwise noted; for a complete schedule and info, check CMW’s site at www.cmw.net. But first, in chronological order, here are some particular highlights:
At the nerdy end of the spectrum, McGill University’s chair in the esoteric field of Psychology of the Information Sciences, a fella named Dr. Daniel Levitin — who also wrote the tome This Is Your Brain on Music — hits the Ballroom (March 6, 4pm) to share his expertise on music cognition — a.k.a. the science of why we like the music we do. Also geek-friendly: cult figure Seymour Stein, the infamous Sire Records chairman responsible for signing everyone from the Ramones to the Talking Heads to Madonna (he was immortalized in a Belle and Sebastian song) dishes with Tommy Ramone in the Concert Hall (March 7, 12:30 pm).
Fulfilling the celebrity quota: Canadisco diva-turned-angst rocker-turned-Zen songstress Alanis Morissette gets the interview treatment (March 7, 5:15pm, Concert Hall). Iconic hip-hop philosopher KRS-ONE delivers a keynote address (March 8, 1:30pm, Ballroom); rap fans will probably want to stick around the joint to check out Wu-Tang kingpin the RZA, also in the Ballroom at 2:45pm. And later Saturday, long-time vegan, tea maven and dance-music commodifier Moby gets grilled at 5:15pm in the Ballroom.
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