Jeff Healey and Cool Jazz 78s

Musicman Healey had a Passion for Jazz Vinyl Lps but Only up to 1942

Mar 19, 2008

Jeff Healey had a library of vinyl, and sometimes what he had just bought at a flea market for a song turned out to be another collector's dream melody.

Jeff Healey discusses his record collection and listening tastes in this exclusive 1988 interview with late great musician Jeff Healey.

"The rarest .... The rarest of course is not always the best. I've got a few that sort of rate that but I guess the rarest that I came up with by fluke was at the Dixie Flea Market in Mississauga. This guy had about four or five of those book album sets full of what he called brand new records that had never been played. That was true. They were all pretty well dealer stock meaning they would have been from the manufacturer to the dealer but never sold.

"These were the bottom of the barrel. They would sell 213 out of 215 copies of a record and I took a few things out of there that I didn’t have – they all late 20’s things – some of them really nice – sort of hot dance music things and one of them was a pairing of two black bands out of New York that only made a handful of records each which I found interesting. A good black band is a good black band. So I brought the record. They were all going for a dollar a piece which was fine and as I said brand new and never been played.

"So I happened to be talking to a collector friend of mine and mentioned that I had this record and after he picked the phone up off the floor he said, ‘Do you realize what you have?' I said 'No'. He said 'That record is being sought by just about everybody at this point just because it's a really rare jazz item to have.' And he said, 'The fact that it is brand new and hasn’t been played probably is worth now around $100 at least.' So I paid a dollar for it."

"The really really rare stuff – I probably am never going to see it or if I do I probably won’t be able afford it for a long time. Stuff like that has been re-issued and re-issued between being re-dubbed onto 78’s later in the '40s when there was sort of an interest ..that's really when collecting old jazz started. People interested in collecting and they could never find a copy of this record so some lucky person who had one would dub it onto a 78 and press up a few hundred copies.

"But that would be worth about $2 or $3 dollars where the original might be worth three or four hundred. There's just countless LPs out there of this stuff – of really really off the wall odd ball small band jazz records that might have sold 25 copies or something if you managed you find one. Because a record is really rare it doesn’t mean that you can’t at least find a replica of it on an album or something. "

For those who would like to celebrate Jeff's incredible music legacy. This announcement is from his Jeff Healey's long time publicist Richard Flohil: Two concerts will be held in Toronto to celebrate the life and music of Jeff Healey, who died March 2, 2008.

These two shows, the only ones organized by his family and friends and the musicians he played with, will be held at the Sound Academy (formerly The Docks) on Saturday May 3, with a traditional and classic jazz event slated for Healey's Roadhouse the following day, May 4.

Both Jeff's bands will be involved, with the Healey's House Band, led by Dave Murphy, backing many of the artists who want to pay tribute at the Saturday event. The Jazz Wizards will make appearances at both events as a reminder of their fallen leader's passionate involvement in classic jazz from the ’20s and ’30s.

The final lineup will be announced in two weeks; advance ticket prices and availability will be announced at that time.

The copyright of the article Jeff Healey and Cool Jazz 78s in Jazz is owned by Coral Andrews. Permission to republish Jeff Healey and Cool Jazz 78s in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.