Haydain Neale (September 3, 1970 – November 22, 2009) was a Canadian singer-songwriter from

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. He was best known as the lead singer of Juno Award-winning band jacksoul. Neale also served on the faculty of the

Humber College The Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, commonly known as Humber College, is a public College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1967, Humber has two main campuses: the Humber North c ...

Summer Songwriting Workshop and as president of the

Songwriters Association of Canada The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is a Canadian organization dedicated exclusively to Canadian composers, lyricists and songwriters. Their mission is to develop and protect the creative and business environments for songwriters in Canada ...

. He starred in the commissioned jazz opera ''Québécité'' by George Elliot Clarke, which debuted at the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2003. Neale played Ovide Rimbaud, a Haitian-Québécois architect.

Traffic accident

Neale was involved in a traffic accident on Kennedy Road in Toronto on August 3, 2007, and was sent to hospital, when a Honda Civic collided with his

Vespa Vespa () is an Italian luxury brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy to ...

scooter. He was shortly thereafter reported to be in

critical condition Medical state is a term used to describe a hospital patient's health status, or condition. The term is most commonly used in information given to the news media, and is rarely used as a clinical description by physicians. Two aspects of the patien ...

. On August 18, 2007, it was reported that Neale had been in a coma since the accident occurred. The 20-year-old driver of the car was charged with making an unsafe turn and appeared in court on October 25. On October 1, jacksoul's official webpage announced that Neale was recovering and remained in hospital. Another posting on January 8, 2008 confirmed that his condition had continued to improve.

Death

On October 26, 2009, Jacksoul's official website announced that the group would be releasing their first album in over three years. The album, ''

SOULmate A soulmate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity. This may involve similarity, love, romance, platonic relationships, comfort, intimacy, sexuality, sexual activity, spirituality, compatibility and trust. D ...

'', was scheduled to be released on December 1, 2009. It contains 10 new songs written before Neale's accident. The first single, "Lonesome Highway", was made available on November 3, 2009. On the morning of November 22, 2009, aged 39, Haydain Neale, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

's Mount Sinai Hospital. He had been diagnosed seven months earlier. In a released statement, Neale's wife Michaela said: "Through all these challenges, Haydain's sense of humour and love of music were ever-present. He constantly brightened the room with his singing and his smile. His joyful presence and beautiful voice will be missed by us all." All profits from ''SOULmate'' were directed to the Haydain Neale Family Trust.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neale, Haydain 1970 births 2009 deaths 21st-century Black Canadian male singers 20th-century Black Canadian male singers Canadian contemporary R&B singers Canadian male songwriters Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from lung cancer Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario Writers from Hamilton, Ontario Canadian soul singers Neo soul singers