Proper SPCD1314 music/sound recording CD Jazz Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards

Jeff Healey is Canada's guitar legend. Blind since he was three years old, his unorthodox technique and his high-energy power rock earned him multi-million record sales. But he is also a musicologist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the work of both jazz and blues artists from the early days of the last century onwards. In addition to his guitar work, Healey has become an accomplished trumpet player, deeply influenced by such vital historic figures as Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and many others.

The Jazz Wizards, recreating and reinterpreting the classic jazz of the 1920s and '30s, have brought Healey to a new audience, and many of his enthusiastic fans in Canada have discovered what is, to them, a new kind of music. This album was recorded live at sold out performances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and at Hughs Room, the preeminent acoustic music venue in Toronto.

In addition to soloing on trumpet and guitar, Healey's band features some of the best known young jazz players in Toronto, plus singer Terra Hazleton. Guesting with them is one of the founding fathers of the British Trad Jazz revival of the '50s, trombonist and occasional vocalist Chris Barber.