Posted by Larry Hoover on March 7, 2008, at 9:38:31
In reply to Re: while his guitar sadly weeps » Kath, posted by Phillipa on March 4, 2008, at 19:43:04
> Since I posted earlier on this thread a guy I e-mail with said he was blind had a family and cancer from age l any truth in that? Thanks Phillipa
Sorry it took so long....most of the time, I'm unable to post.
Jeff Healey was born with retinoblastoma, a cancer arising from the cells that create the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye. He had his eyes removed when he was about 1 year old. Unfortunately, as it turns out, they didn't get it in time.
When he was about 3, he started playing his father's guitar. He developed his own method of doing so, laying it on his lap, and fingering the strings on the fretboard from above, unlike any other guitar player ever. Jeff would try to copy songs by bands that had as many as three guitar players, without realizing that what he was hearing was created by six hands. Sometimes he succeeded.
At 17, he was "discovered" by Stevie Ray Vaughn. There's an amazing video of them playing, on youtube. Anyway, this blind kid, with the freaky style of playing, was simply amazing. He would stand up, doing a solo on this heavy electric guitar, seemingly glued to his lap (I don't know how he could hold it like that), wander around the stage, and then drift back and sit down on his chair again. He never missed the chair. He just knew where it was.
He also taught himself to play trumpet, and other instruments, with great accomplishment. He could switch instruments without missing a beat. His trumpet style was also idiosyncratic. He played it out of the side of his mouth. I guess when you've never seen other people play.....
Maybe you need to be a blues/jazz afficionado, or maybe a Canadian blues/jazz afficionado, to have heard of him. <shrug> He had a radio show where he showcased some of the music from his 30,000 jazz album collection. What I'm about to describe totally boggles my mind. He stored these record albums loose, with no jackets. They were lined up on shelves, edge on, right up tight against each other, like a stack, only sideways. Shelf after shelf like this. Yet, he knew where each one was. He could walk into that room, and pull out any album, without fail. He knew who played on it, what they played, who they played with. He obviously couldn't check a label, or what was next to the one he was looking for, or anything like that. He just knew.
Anyway, he had tumours developing throughout his body over the last few years. Chemo and radiation and surgery failed. But he kept playing, both at his club in Toronto (where that young local guitarist (Jimmy Bowskill) I posted about a few months ago was discovered), and on the road. He never failed to smile. He never complained. Most people didn't even know he was sick. He had bookings two weeks before he passed, and more right through next year. He never missed a beat. He never stopped smiling. He was just a wonderful, inspirational man.
Yes, he had two kids, 10 and 3. And a wife who adored him. I hope to attend his memorial service.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:816062
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20080303/msgs/816702.html