Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley, was an American singer-songwriter. Known for his beatific voice of at least three-and-a-half octaves (approx. 4 octaves), critics considered Buckley 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. His work and style continue to be highly regarded by critics and fellow musicians.
Jeff Buckley's Vocal Style and Range
Jeff Buckley had an ethereal voice and an incredible vocal range. He was a tenor capable of reaching a falsetto pitch. A tenor's range in the bass clef spans middle C to high F. Jeff's actual range was four octaves.
Jeff's vocal style was significantly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Robert Plant, and Freddie Mercury. Jeff was also an enthusiastic admirer of Nusrat Ali Fateh Ali Khan.
Jeff Buckley was a light lyric tenor. His very different registers were blended marvelously. His chest, voice, and head voice were perfectly integrated. His falsetto was good, too, and his fluctuating between falsetto and head voice is something most singers are very jealous of. His tessitura (or comfortable singing range) was between E below middle C, which he often started verses on- ("Grace", "Lover ...", "Last Goodbye"), and the notes D right above middle C and F# just above that- in most of his choruses. He also used his high A frequently. A typical lyric tenor tessitura. In other words, to the unacquainted, the same range as Pavarotti. Except, Jeff was very fond of the alto register, which he would exploit in falsetto, or coordinated head voice (a fuller, wailing type of voice).
"His lowest note was on a live version of "Dream Brother" (on the Australian Grace album pack- it must have been the weather!) and it was the second A below middle C -- this is quite low for a high tenor voice. He loved to wail in head voice on the high E, which he did on half the songs on Grace, but mysteriously stopped doing them on Sketches .... This was high "showstopper" note, I guess. For example, in "So Real", at the outro, he sings the high E, and then scoops up to the High F# , this is very high, even for a tenor. And it's not in falsetto -- falsetto is quite easy to do for most male voices. No, this is in a coordinated head voice -- that's a full sounding voice -- very difficult to do (or at least sustain) at that pitch! Jeff's head voice (not falsetto) was quite unique. He could sing in an alto range quite effectively- check out "Strange Fruit" on the "Man in the Moon" session -- breathtaking; or the Edith Piaf cover on Live at Sin-é. And evidently his voice wasn't up to scratch on the day of the "Man in the Moon" sessions.
"His highest note is on the B-sides on Sketches ... on the track "Gunshot Glitter." It's an Eb above the soprano high C!!!! This is coloratura (high agile soprano) territory! It's kind of a squeaky falsetto note- only for a second, but it's technically phenomenal- it sounds like he was just playing around. Another phenomenally high passage is in the jazz scat in " The Way Young Lovers Do" on Live at Sin-é. He actually gets into the super-register, normally reserved for trumpets!
"Anyway, his voice was magnificent. And his breath control was phenomenal- the sustained notes in "Mojo Pin" are very, very hard to sustain the way he does." [1]
Career
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jeff Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley. His father was a 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 (1975 in music). His mother was of Panamanian descent, while his father was the descendant of Irish emigrants from Co. Cork. 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 around the age of 10 he chose to go by his birth name after meeting his father for the first (and only) time; to his family he still 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", yet he made life-long friends there. His diverse musical background was reflected in the bands in which he participated before going solo. In L.A., he was in the reggae band Shinehead, as well as a number of other bands in which he usually only played guitar. He had yet to reveal his magnificent voice even to bandmates.
Buckley moved to New York in 1990. Buckley's public debut as a singer was the 1991 tribute performance for his father, Tim Buckley, at St. Ann's Church in New York City. He 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" with Gary Lucas accompanying him on guitar and did an a cappella performance of "Once I Was" that brought the venue to complete silence. 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."
Buckley soon became a regular solo performer at the Greenwich Village cafe Sin-é, where he attracted the attention of executives from Columbia Records. An EP of four songs recorded at Sin-é was released on Columbia in 1993.
Grace
Buckley played with experimental guitarist Gary Lucas in his band Gods and Monsters. In 1994, Buckley released his debut album Grace, composed of ten tracks. While sales were slow, the album quickly received critical acclaim and appreciation from other musicians (among them Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, Paul McCartney, and Neil Peart). His cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is considered by many to be the definitive recording of that song, and is probably Buckley's best-known song.
After the release of his first and critically acclaimed album, Buckley spent more than two years touring across the world. It seemed to be a tiring but effective means for him to keep his independence from his record company, with which he had a strained relationship. In 1995 Buckley played a concert at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French chanteuse Édith Piaf, that he considered the finest performance of his career.
Buckley also went on a so-called "phantom solo tour" starting in December of 1996, using several aliases including: Father Demo, Topless America, Smackcrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crackrobats, and Martha and the Nicotines. As a justification to this mysterious tour, Buckley posted a note on the internet stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars:
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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.
Death
Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis, Tennessee on May 29, 1997, the evening his band came to Memphis to start recording for his second album, which was to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk. He was swept away by the undertow of a passing boat while swimming. His body was recovered five days later at the bottom of Beale Street, the legendary birthplace of the blues; he was identified by his trademark belly button piercing.
After Buckley's death, some of the demo recordings for his second album were released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago.
Buckley's work, seemingly an anomaly at its time, has been enormously influential. Numerous tribute songs have been written, among them PJ Harvey's "Memphis", Amy Correia's "Blind River Boy", Rufus Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline", Chris Cornell's "Wave Goodbye", Belgian band Zita Swoon's "Song For A Dead Singer", and various tunes by the New Jersey band Ours. Vocalists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Matt Bellamy of Muse unabashedly cue themselves to his voice.
Discography
Concert films
Documentaries
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Everybody Here Wants You (2002) – BBC
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Tribute songs
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"A Body Goes Down" - Duncan Shiek
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"Bleed" - Ours
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"Blind River Boy" - Amy Correia
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"Boys on the Radio" - Hole (partially)
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"By Yourself" - Sister 7
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"I Heard You Singing" - Ours
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"Living In A Video" - Ours
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"New Blood" - Beth Wood
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"Saint Down The Hall" - Ours
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"We Don't Know" - Health & Happiness Show
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Covers of Jeff Buckley songs
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"Everybody Here Wants You" - Big Sir
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"Grace" - Rachel Sage
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"Grace" - Three Against Four
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"Last Goodbye"- [The Tea Party] (live)
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"Lover, You Should've Come Over" - Howie Day (live)
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"Lover, You Should've Come Over" - John Mayer (live)
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"Yard of Blonde Girls" - Micah P. Hinson (technically an Inger Lorre cover)
External links
