http://www.jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/H ... 45932.html
Don't want to start the whole debate about what is an is not swing but I though some of y'all might be interested in it.Jazzy Jeff Healey
Rocker sees the light and picks up a trumpet
By MIKE ROSS
Jeff Healey can slam just about every traditional jazz album made by a modern pop star in the last 10 years - and get away with it.
Why? Two reasons:
A. He knows what he's talking about. "Traditional" jazz has been his lifelong passion, more than rock 'n' roll, even, proven by his much-ballyhooed collection of vintage 78s. It numbers 25,000 and holding.
B. He's blind. Hey, don't pick on the blind guy - even though he'd eat you alive in negotiations, either in his musician's hat or his bar owner's hat at Jeff Healey's club in Toronto.
"I'm a very dangerous person to work with now," he laughs. "I have learned a hell of a lot over the last 21/2 years, from the other side of the fence. Some things I wish I hadn't - like the operational habits of musicians. Musicians are really a lazy bunch. I guess I never realized to what degree ... And if you're a club owner trying to book me, I know how much the club takes in, what the expenses are, and I know my rights."
Since turning his back on rock stardom last year - dumping his stake in Forte Management (which represented Amanda Marshall) along with his former bandmates Tom Stephen and Joe Rockman, current whereabouts unknown - Healey has turned his full musical attention to a project called the Jazz Wizards. The six-piece group plays St. Albert's Arden Theatre tomorrow night. Don't you dare call it Dixieland.
"Dixieland is a state of mind, not a form of music," Healey says, agreeing that punk is pretty much the same thing. "You get a vision of hats and canes, which is kind of distressing to those of us who appreciate good music."
The Jazz Wizards focus on good music from the '20s and '30s - jazz being the popular music of the time. It was not for studying or "appreciating." People reat-pleated their zoot suits and came to dance without irony. Jazz was the disco of its day. This ended, Healey explains, when "bebop" succeeded in totally alienating the mainstream audience, leaving jazz on the fringe to this day. (Too bad punk rock couldn't have done the same thing.)
Traditional jazz came back for a week or so there during the "swing" fad a few of years back - but most of it was bogus, Healey says. He takes aim at the Squirrel Nut Zippers, an annoying band for a variety of reasons. "I met them a couple of times and what I found was a bunch of guys who thought they were taking their music seriously but hadn't a clue what they were doing. As a result, it sounded like a bunch of rock musicians experimenting with something they should leave alone."
A tad elitist, are we? Healey counters that not everyone in a traditional jazz band has to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre in order to do it properly. In fact, Jazz Wizards saxophonist Chris Plock knows "very little" about it, but makes up for it with showmanship and the ability to serve the song before serving himself. You only need one expert in any band, says Healey. And Healey happens to be in charge of this one.
"All those swing bands, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies and so on were just making a lot of money. Brian Setzer did the swing thing, but he will always be a Stray Cat in my book. He may hate me for that, but that's how I feel. He has no knowledge of that type of music."
Even Colin James, who sometimes plays at Jeff Healey's club, does not escape the club owner's critical tongue. Of the Little Big Band record, Healey says, "There's no arrangements there. Those boys are all blowing in unison. That doesn't take much more than an amoebic mentality."
Healey, who now plays trumpet as much as guitar, dismisses the idea he should do a big band album and show them how it's done - "too many people; too much hassle" - and takes umbrage at the suggestion that hits from his previous life like See the Light or Angel Eyes should be reworked into traditional jazz numbers.
Why not?
"Ridiculous is the word that comes to mind," he says. "Why even bother? It would sound like s---. Give that to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy."
I think he's made his feelings clear on this matter.
Tickets to Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards are $33.50 and on sale at the Arden box office (459-1542).
Oh, for anyone who hasn't heard Jeff's Jazz stuff, check out:
http://www.livetourartists.com/jeff_healey/music.htm
there's even a few tracks off his new CD which I'm trying to acquire.
Edited to update the link and include the text of the article.