He has since amassed an enormous record collection of jazz music from the '20s and '30s and is considered an authority on the subject. In this regard, he was conferred an honorary Doctorate of Letters by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, in 2004. Over the last few decades he has played and recorded with an impressive list of high-profile musicians, including on the 2001 Along for the Ride CD released by legendary British bluesman John Mayall, who recently received an Order of the British Empire. Healey was perform live with Mayall at Club 77 in Hamilton on July 10/05, but that particular date on Mayall�s tour was ultimately cancelled.
Along with the recent birth of his second child and the resurrection of My Kinda Jazz, now heard on JAZZ FM (www.jazz.fm), he has launched his own record label, HealeyOPhonic (whose roster includes vocal sensation Terra Hazelton), and he currently sings and plays trumpet under the name of Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards at his self-named Toronto nightclub. He also plays with a special guest every Thursday night, backed by his house band (drummer Al Webster, guitarist Dan Noordemeer, keyboardist Dave Murphy and bassist Alec Fraser) and a weekly special guest, usually of international notoriety.
Despite losing his sight at an early age and undergoing recent surgery to combat cancer, he continues to actively perform and promote traditional American jazz (and to a lesser extent, blues-rock) within the Canadian music industry and abroad. He downplays any significance to his blindness where his various accomplishments are concerned.
�The blindness has no bearing. It�s like saying that somebody with the inability to walk or missing a hand or something�well, missing a hand and trying to play a guitar would be rather astonishing, but you know what I mean. We are all sort of given our lot in life, as it were, and you have your talents and your strength and you take it from there. "
"Personality has a lot to do with it. Truth be told, Dan Noordemeer, the guitarist in my house band, is a much better guitar player than I am because he has really worked at it. Technically, he�s flawless. He is just a marvelous musician. He�s the type that�s just a guitar player that�s happy to stay back and do just that. Some people just have a way, a personality that brings them up front further. It doesn�t mean they are any more talented or less talented or what have you.�
Although, like any parent, he has grand hopes that his brand-new son, Derek, will become a concert pianist, he states, �I hope that Derek will do whatever it is that he�s happiest doing. My daughter has decided that she wants to be a vet and she�s been very intent on that for years. Once children can decide on a profession early on in life, it takes a lot of the pressure off. Rachel has been at this since she was three and she knows more about animals and different species and living conditions and on and on than most adults do.�
Where his own musical education was concerned, he says, �I suppose a lot of it was trial and error. I did take music theory instruction, and I took piano lessons for five or six years. My theory instruction was from a guitar teacher, and because I held the guitar a little differently, he and I kind of worked out some various exercises and techniques and things like that.�
He describes his band interactions as a guest player like this: �For the most part, I let them sort of do what they�re going to do, but with my band, obviously I direct what�s going on, as it�s best to let the blind guy direct because he can�t see what anybody else is going to do.�
While he agrees that some people are intimidated or ill-at-ease in communicating with him as a non-sighted person, he adds, �I certainly don�t condemn the world for it. What you don�t know, what you don�t have experience with � how can you immediately relate? If I walked up to somebody who is in a wheelchair and I ask them do they need help, fifty percent of them would probably say �no� and ten percent of them might say �no� in a rather snide sort of way. Fifty percent might need help and some of them might not be able to respond. You really don�t know. It depends on the upbringing and the severity of the disability."
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