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Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley and raised as Scottie Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Known for his vocal range, Buckley was considered by critics to be one of the most promising artists of his generation after the release of his 1994 debut album Grace. However, at the height of his popularity, Buckley drowned during an evening swim in 1997. His work and style continue to be highly regarded by critics and fellow musicians.Early life - Born in Anaheim, California, Jeff Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley. His mother was a Panama Canal Zonian of mixed Greek, French, American and Panamanian descent[1], while his father was the descendant of Irish immigrants from Cork.His father was also a singer-songwriter who released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s before his own untimely death in 1975. Buckley was raised by his mother and step-father Ron Moorhead (for just a few years) in Southern California, constantly moving in and around Orange County. Additionally he had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead. During his childhood he was known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, but at the early age of 8 he chose to go by his birth name after meeting his father for the first (and only) time; to his family he remained Scottie.At eighteen, Buckley moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from the Musician's Institute's two-year course. Buckley often called his time at the Institute a "waste", although he made life-long friends there. Like his hero Jimmy Page, he wanted to play guitar. His diverse musical background was reflected in the bands in which he participated before going solo. At one point he was in a punk band, and lead guitar in the reggae band Shinehead, where he limited his singing to backing vocals.Early career - Buckley moved to New York in February 1990, but after finding few opportunities to work as a musician, he returned to Los Angeles in September to record his first demo of his own songs. He returned to New York shortly thereafter and made his public singing debut at a tribute concert for his father, Tim Buckley, produced by Hal Willner at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn on April 26, 1991; the event was called "Greetings from Tim Buckley". Jeff was not billed as a performer, choosing simply to pay his respects to his father, saying "This is not a springboard, this is something very personal." He performed "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" and "Sefronia - The King's Chain" with experimental rock guitarist, Gary Lucas, accompanying him, as well as the song "Phantasmagoria in Two". Buckley finished the concert with an acoustic performance of "Once I Was" with an impromptu a cappella ending. When questioned about that particular performance, Buckley said "It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But it bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I'd never been able to tell him anything. I used that show to pay my last respects."On subsequent trips to New York in the summer of 1991, Buckley began co-writing with Gary Lucas, resulting in the songs "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" and by fall began performing with Lucas and Lucas' band Gods and Monsters around New York City. After being offered a development deal with Gods and Monsters at Imago Records, Buckley moved back to New York at the end of 1991. The day after Gods and Monsters officially debuted in March 1992, Buckley decided to leave the band.On a Friday in April 1992, Buckley began performing at a hole-in-the-wall-sized café called Sin-é, in the East Village; his repertoire consisted of a wide variety of cover songs, and a few originals he was developing. Buckley had great respect for particular songwriting icons, such as Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Led Zeppelin, whose songs he would perform, accompanying himself on electric guitar. Buckley was eventually accorded a regular Monday night slot, which became a personal (and public) workshop in which he focused on improving his voice and learning to connect with an audience.Within a month, he attracted admiring crowds and attention from Columbia Records executives. Within the next 2 months more record labels began dropping by Sin-é, and by the summer of 1992, limos from executives lined the street outside Sin-é eager to sign the singer. Buckley signed with Columbia Records, home of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen in the fall of 1992.Recording dates were set for July and August 1993 for what would become Buckley's recording debut, an EP of four songs. Live at Sin-é was released in December 1993, documenting this period of Buckley's life.Grace - In Autumn of 1993, Buckley assembled a band comprised of Michael Tighe (guitar), Matt Johnson (drums) and Mick Grondahl (bass) and headed to Woodstock, New York, to begin work on his first album, Grace. He invited ex-bandmate Lucas to play guitar on the album versions of "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" — the two songs on which Lucas is credited as a co-writer. While sales were slow, the album did quickly receive critical acclaim and appreciation from other revered musicians (among them Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Daniel Christos, Paul McCartney, Thom Yorke, Chris Cornell, Neil Peart, Elvis Costello, and Elton John), and has remained in high esteem. The album did go gold in France and Australia over the next two years, eventually achieving gold status in the U.S. in 2002. Grace features cover versions of "Lilac Wine" (based on Nina Simone's version on the 1966 album Wild Is The Wind) and a rendition of the Middle English hymn "Corpus Christi Carol". Buckley's seminal version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" was perhaps the album's magnum opus, and is still considered by many to be the definitive recording; it has since become Buckley's best-known song.After the release of Grace in 1994, Buckley spent more than two years touring around the world. It seemed to be a tiring yet effective means for him to keep his independence from his record company, with which he had a strained relationship. From the album's release, he played in numerous countries, from Australia, to the UK (Glastonbury Festival). In 1995 Buckley played a concert at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French vocalist Édith Piaf, that he considered the finest performance of his career. Sony has since released a live recording of that performance.Buckley went on his "phantom solo tour" of cafés in the Northeast in December 1996, appearing under a series of aliases: The Crackrobats, Possessed by Elves, Father Demo, Smackrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crit-Club, Topless America, Martha & the Nicotines, and A Puppet Show Named Julio. By way of justification, Buckley posted a note on the Internet stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars:"There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e., have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it."Much of the material from the tours of 1995 and 1996 was recorded, and has been released posthumously on albums such as Mystery White Boy and Live a l'Olympia.Buckley was an impassioned fan of Pakistani Sufi musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and during his cafe days Buckley had often covered his songs. He interviewed Khan for Interview magazine and wrote liner notes for Khan's The Supreme Collection compilation.Death - After completing touring in 1996, Buckley started to write for a new album to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk. In 1997 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he rented a shotgun house of which he was so fond he contacted the owner about the possibility of buying it. Buckley started recording demos on his own 4-track recorder. He went into the studio again, recruited a band, and plans for the new album looked hopeful.On May 29, 1997, as the band's plane touched down on the runway to join him in his Memphis studio, Buckley went swimming in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. His friend Keith Foti remained ashore and, after moving a radio and guitar out of reach of the wake from a passing tugboat, looked up to see that Buckley was gone. Despite a determined rescue effort that night, Buckley remained missing, and the search was called off the following day. One week later his body was spotted by a tourist on a riverboat marina and brought ashore.It was widely speculated that Buckley may have committed suicide, partly because he went swimming in the river wearing his heavy boots. The biography Dream Brother, written about him and his father, reveals that the night before his death Buckley reportedly admitted to several loved ones that he suffered from bipolar disorder. The autopsy confirmed that Buckley had taken no illegal drugs before his swim and a drug overdose was ruled out as the cause of death. He was 30 years old.A recent statement from the Buckley estate insists:“ Jeff Buckley's death was not "mysterious", related to drugs, alcohol, or suicide. We have a police report, a medical examiner's report, and an eye witness to prove that it was an accidental drowning, and that Mr. Buckley was in a good frame of mind prior to the accident".After Buckley's death, a collection of demo recordings and a full length album he had been reworking for his second album were released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk - the compilation being overseen by Chris Cornell. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago.We mourn his passing, the man, the music, the soul.
