Jeff Healey to have T.O. park named in his honour

 A west-end Toronto park is to be renamed after a Canadian music icon.

Beginning in June, Woodford Park, near Queensway and Parklawn, will be called Jeff Healey Park.

Healey often played in the park as a child and later brought his children there to play.

The legendary blues and jazz guitarist died at in 2008 at age 41 after a battle with cancer.

The musician had performed with such acclaimed guitar players as B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and George Harrison.

The blind guitarist first began playing the instrument at the age of three and formed his first band while still a teenager.

He played with a very distinctive style, laying his guitar on his lap.

One of his best-known songs, "Angel Eyes," came from the Grammy-nominated album See the Light.

His blues band, simply called the Jeff Healey Band, has sold more than 1 million albums in the United States. But along with rock and blues music, Healey was also an accomplished jazz musician.

In his final years he had hosted a jazz program on Jazz-FM in Toronto, playing rare tracks from his vast collection of more than 30,000 78-rpm records. http://www.jeffhealey.com/

ctvtoronto.ca