Eddie Heywood born 4 December 1915

Edward Heywood Jr. (December 4, 1915 – January 3, 1989) was an American jazz pianist and composer particularly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Eddie is probably most remembered now for originating the much-loved song, “Canadian Sunset.” But Heywood’s story encompasses so much more, including not only his early experiences in the big band era but also having to overcome bouts of paralysis in his later years. 

Heywood was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. His father, Eddie Heywood Sr., was also a jazz musician from the 1920s and provided him with training from the age of 12 as an accompanist playing in the pit band in a vaudeville theater in Atlanta, occasionally accompanying singers such as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Heywood moved, first to New Orleans and then to Kansas City, when vaudeville began to be replaced by sound pictures. Heywood played with jazz musicians such as Wayman Carver in 1932, Clarence Love from 1934 to 1937 and Benny Carter from 1939 to 1940. 

He became the house pianist at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village, where he led a trio and accompanied singers, among them the Revuers, a group that included Judy Holliday, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. After starting his band, Heywood would occasionally do back-up for Billie Holiday in 1941. In 1943, at the urging of John Hammond, the jazz authority whose interest had nurtured the careers of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman, Mr. Heywood took several classic solos on a Coleman Hawkins quartet date (including "The Man I Love") and put together the first sextet, including Doc Cheatham and Vic Dickenson. Eddie and his sextet played at the Cafe Society Downtown, being billed as the "Biggest Little Band in the Land". 

                                   

The type of music they played, and their billing, placed them in direct competition with John Kirby. The group played in a crisp, stylized manner that was an adaptation of Mr. Heywood's playing as a solo pianist. He had been playing ''Begin the Beguine'' in this fashion as a piano soloist and he arranged it for his sextet in the same way. It was an immediate success and it set a pattern for the group's playing that appealed equally to jazz fans and followers of pop music. After their version of "Begin the Beguine" became a hit in 1944, the group had three successful years. "Begin the Beguine" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. 

It was between 1947 to 1950, Heywood was stricken with a partial paralysis of his hands and could not play at all. However, it did not stop him when he made a comeback later in the decade. In the 1950s, Heywood composed and recorded "Land of Dreams" and "Soft Summer Breeze" (1956) (which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard chart) and is probably best known for his 1956 recording of his composition "Canadian Sunset," with Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra for RCA Victor, which peaked at number 2. In 1960 he was awarded  a "Star" at 1709 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

After a second partial paralysis from 1966 to 1969, Heywood made another comeback and continued his career into the 1980s. By this time he was working in the field of light music rather than jazz. In his later years Eddie suffered from Parkinson's disease, later complicated with Alzheimer's disease, and had been in frail health since the mid 80's.  He died at his home in Miami Beach, Florida, 3 January 1989, aged 73.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The New York Times)