Jeff Buckley died on this date in 1997

[Jeff Buckley on St. Mark's Place circa 1993 via]

Peter Ferraro at East Village Radio reminds us that today is the anniversary of Jeff Buckley's death in 1997. After working with his band in Memphis on the evening of May 29, Buckley went swimming in Wolf River Harbor off the Mississippi River and drowned. Buckley was 30. He had one studio album to his name, the critically praised "Grace" that came out in August 1994.

"He did so much with one studio album," Ferraro said in an email. "It's one of my all-time favorite records. I could only imagine what would've come next."

Buckley, an East Village resident since 1990, was a regular at Sin-é at 122 St. Mark's Place in the early 1990s. (The St. Mark's version of Sin-é closed in 1996.) His Monday night residency was quite popular.

You can read his official bio here.

Late last summer/early fall, a few scenes for "Greetings From Tim Buckley" filmed in the East Village. Here's the official synopsis for the Jeff Buckley-Tim Buckley biopic:

Greetings from Tim Buckley follows the true story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley’s eminent 1991 performance at his father’s tribute concert in St. Ann’s Church. Through a romance with a young woman working at the concert, he learns to embrace all of his feelings toward the father who abandoned him — longing, anger, forgiveness, and love. Culminating a cathartic performance of his father’s most famous songs, Jeff’s debut stuns the audience and launches his career as one of the greatest young musicians of his time.

Penn Badgley from "Gossip Girl" fame — and no stranger to the East Village! — portrays Jeff. No exact release date yet for the movie. (There's another Jeff Buckley biopic in the works, which you can read about here.)

East Village Radio assembled a collection of Jeff Buckley videos, which you can find here.