Stony Plain Records artist: Jeff Healey - Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues from Jeff Healey and it's great! Healey, a serious vintage record collector (over 30,000 78's of classic 20's and 30's music) was well known as Canada's top rock and blues guitar player and band leader but prior to his untimely death in 2008 opened a club in Toronto and formed Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards. Fortunately, some of that fine work that Jeff did in his love for the early music is compiled here as a part of The Best of Series. Opening with Kalmar and Ruby's Three Little Words, featuring Healey on vocal and guitar, Jesse Barksdale on rhythm guitar Reide Kaiser on piano, Colin Bray on bass and the exceptional solo work of Tom Pletcher on coronet and Dan Levinson on clarinet. You've never heard Healey play this guitar style. Excellent! Lang and Venuti's intrumental, The Wildcat, screams along with really nice violin work from Drew Jurecka on violin and Healey on guitar. Wow! Carmichael and Parish classic, Star Dust, features Healey's solid vocals with Roberto Rosenman with an excellent guitar solo. Snyder, Smith and Wheeleer composition, The Sheik of Araby, finds Healey not only on lead vocal but playing really fine trumpet along with Ross Woolridge on clarinet, Jurecka on violin, Reide Kaiser on piano, Colin Bray on bass and Gary Scriven on drums and washboard. This track rips! Jones and Collins, Guitar Duet Stomp, shows some of Healey's most sensitive guitar work along the lines of Django and Bireli. Strong! Harling and Coslow track Sing You Sinners really digs into the Dixieland sound. This track has the full lineup with Healey on vocal, trumpet and guitar; Jurecka on violin, Barksdale on guitar; Bray on bass; Christopher Plock on soprano and alto sax; Chris Barber on trombone and Brian Graville on piano. Excellent! Hill and Williams composition, I Would Do Anything For You, features Healey on vocal, guitar and trumpet, Plock on soprano sax, Gary Scriven on drums, Barksdale on acoustic guitar and kaiser on piano. Super! Mercer and Malneck swinger, Pardon My Southern Accent, features Healey on vocal, Scriven on drums, Bray on bass, Kaiser on piano, Danny Douglas on trombone and Ross Woolridge on clarinet. Shelton Brooks' Some Of These Days, features an excellent acoustic "gypsy" guitar solo and trumpet solo from Healey. This track swings! Meyer and Ruby composition, My Honey's Lovin' Arms, shows just how smooth Healey can be on lead vocal on these tracks, with Levinson matching up nicely on clarinet to Pletcher on coronet. Kaiser on piano and Bray on bass fill out the piece with Barksdale on rhythm guitar and Healey throws out a really nicely articulated swing guitar solo. Fine! Carmichael's Hong Kong Blues has a comical feel to it next to much of the release but some of the guitar picking on this track is so fine it had to be included. Wrapping the release is Pinard, Bernie and Casey's classic, Sweet Georgia Brown, and it is a full out jam with Healey singing over the top backed by Barber on trombone, Jurecka on violin, Plock on sax, Barksdale on guitar, Bray on bass, Graville on piano and Scriven on drums. This is an excellent review of Healey's work outside of the blues rock genre and a must have for anyone at all interested in contemporary swing jazz. Excellent!

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Stony Plain Records Announces Next in Its "Best of" Series with New Compilation from Jeff Healey, "Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues," on July 17

Stony Plain Records Announces Next in Its “Best of” Series with New Compilation from Jeff Healey,

Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues, on July 17

EDMONTON, AB – Stony Plain Records announces a July 17 release date for the latest in its series of Best of the Stony Plain Years compilations with a set from the late guitarist extraordinaire, Jeff Healey, Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues. Compiled with the participation of Jeff’s widow, Cristie, as well as long-time friend Roger Costa, Jeff Healey’s Best of the Stony Plain Years CD includes 11 tracks from his four Stony Plain albums of vintage jazz and swing projects, as well as “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a track previously released on a promotion-only CD sampler that also features jazz legend Chris Barber on trombone. The CD carries a special reduced list price of $12.98.

“Stony Plain was honored to release Jeff Healey’s four vintage jazz/swing projects, plus a DVD with his beloved Jazz Wizards,” writes Holger Petersen, Stony Plain president and a close friend of Healey’s, in the album’s liner notes. “This music was his first love allowing him to play guitar and trumpet in addition to having a career as one of the worlds most acclaimed and innovative electric blues and rock musicians.

“Jeff Healey (1966-2008) was a musicologist and serious record collector who eventually amassed 30,000 78s from the classic period of the twenties and thirties,” Petersen states. “He started playing guitar at age three and invented his own “lap” style of playing. By the age of 14, Jeff was already a highly respected jazz broadcaster on CBC Radio, and later JAZZ.FM91 in Toronto. He became one of Canada’s most acclaimed guitarists, singers and bandleaders with The Jeff Healey Band and sold millions of records worldwide. By the late ‘90s, Jeff tired of the constant travel and the life of being a “rock star.” He disbanded the JHB shortly after opening a club in Toronto called Healey’s and with the help of Colin Bray, formed Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards to play the music he loved on Saturday afternoons, in addition to regularly playing with his new blues rock band. 
 

“We started to work together in 2005 at a time when Jeff only wanted to record classic jazz. We promptly recorded the live album It’s Tight Like That with legendary British trombonist and band leader Chris Barber. We followed that up with reissues of his two previous jazz albums, plus a live DVD. Jeff eventually did go back to record two electric blues based albums for Stony Plain including Mess Of Blues, which won the Blues Foundation’s ‘Rock Blues Album Of The Year’ award in 2009. Jeff’s final studio album, Last Call, was released posthumously in 2010. 
“It was a stripped-down solo, duo and trio recording that could be called The Real Jeff Healey. It shows his love for all musical styles and features some of his best guitar and trumpet playing with heartfelt singing. His duet with violinist Drew Jurecka on ‘The Wild Cat’ is a highlight. 

“Seeing Jeff on stage with his friends, the amazing players in the Jazz Wizards, was a joyous experience filled with camaraderie and endless jokes. It was an honor working with Jeff and getting to know his fellow musicians and family.”

For more information about Jeff Healey’s The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz,
Swing and Blues and other CDs in the series from Joe Louis Walker and Long John Baldry, visit www.stonyplainrecords.com.

Track Listing

1 Three Little Words 4:24

2 The Wildcat 2:35

3 Star Dust 4:52

4 Sheik of Araby 5:11

5 Guitar Duet Stomp 3:37

6 Sing You Sinners 5:05

7 I Would Do Anything for You 4:28

8 Pardon My Southern Accent 3:46

9 Some Of These Days 2:47

10 My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms 5:02

11 Hong Kong Blues 3:13

12 Sweet Georgia Brown 8:32