Guitar prodigy played rock, jazz

Jeff Healey, 41, a rock and jazz guitar whiz who rose to stardom with the platinum-selling 1988 album “See the Light” and its hit single “Angel Eyes,” died Sunday of cancer at a Toronto hospital.

Healey, who underwent numerous operations in recent years to remove tumors from his lungs and leg, had battled cancer since age 1, when a rare form of retinal cancer known as retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight.

The Canadian-born Healey was a prodigy, learning to play guitar at the age of 3 and performing at 6. He developed a distinctive style of playing, holding the guitar in his lap like a flat-neck dobro, while fretting with his hand atop the instrument’s neck. He looked more like a piano player than a conventional guitarist. Healey also played a number of brass instruments, keyboards and drums.

His true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his three most recent albums. He also hosted radio shows in Canada where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of more than 18,000 78-rpm records and thousands more on LP and compact disc.

In 1989, he appeared in the motion picture “Road House.” His first rock album in eight years, “Mess of Blues,” is due for a North American release April 22.