While discussing the need for more books to be published in the Braille format, Dr. Healey lamented the lack of books being printed at all.
�To comment further on the decay of our society, we are pushing talking books on people who are able to see perfectly well, so obviously we don�t care much about literacy as a society. So, how can you expect, given that, for Braille to be given any sort of a priority with publishers? They are more interested in just putting them out on CDs now�We�re getting away from the physical act of being able to read.�
He did concede that some people resort to audio books if they are physically incapable of holding a book or that too much reading could actually damage eyesight.
�That�s the downside, isn�t it?�
Getting back to his HealyOPhonic label and his preoccupation with jazz music, Jeff reiterates:
�That�s predominantly what I do and it�s always been what I�ve been most interested in. If I could have started at playing more traditional jazz music than popular music, it�s what I would have done. For the most part, that�s generally what I try to do in my professional life. It isn�t sort of a hobby or a little novelty; this is what I�ve always collected and� I just find it far more interesting and appealing. "
In regard to rock music he admits,
��if I never had to do another Jeff Healey Band gig, I would not be upset. It would actually be a huge load lifted, but unfortunately at this point, it really is what majorly pays the bills. I find the majority of pop and rock music, over the last 40 years, to be insipidly boring when you put it up against the type of music happening throughout the 20s and 30s, with melodies and chords that you can actually form some interesting solos around. When you look at people that jam for minutes on end on one chord, I have no idea how people can do that, unless you have the musical depth of an amoeba. I just want to slam my head against the wall when somebody wants to do a song that uses one or two chords. It�s incredibly boring.�
When I voiced my own perception of monotonous music, i.e. rap, Jeff was quick to defend that particular mode of expression.
�Rap music is not so much music; this is rhythm with speech. To be quite honest with you, at times I have more time for that than I do for some rock performances because there are some rap performances where there�s been a hell of a lot of thought gone into the timing of the rhyming�there�s a rhyme for you�and the pattern of it. "
"If you just remember that it�s not music and get that out of your head, then you can appreciate it. It�s interesting poetry put to a beat, and this is not anything new. This has been going on in various forms throughout the whole 20th century�The black culture was doing sort of rap-type things as far back as the '30s�taking rhymes and putting them to rhythm and that sort of thing. It�s a street thing. It�s a very different culture to what a lot of us are used to.�
Although Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards performed at the awards ceremony at the Toronto Jazz Festival on June 21, they did not participate in the actual festival itself. �I [was] quite busy throughout that time period with various things. Also, the Toronto Jazz Festival isn�t as interested in our act, I think, mostly because we play down at Healey�s most every week on Saturday and they kind of figure it�s no big thing. Anyway, that�s no skin off of me.�
(Continued on next page)
