Black History Month 2011-Day 14

Tom “Blind Tom” Wiggins



Introducing one of the nineteenth century's most famous and perplexing pianists, Blind Tom. Born a slave in Georgia, Blind Tom died an international celebrity in 1908. He had an encyclopedic memory, an all-consuming passion for music and a mind boggling capacity to imitate - both verbally and musically - any sound he heard. These extraordinary savant powers rocketed him to fame and made his name a household word, a byword for eccentric, oddball genius.

Source: http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=177100&cid=54



Read an excerpt of the book The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist.

Find out more information about Blind Tom here:

http://www.blindtom.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Tom_Wiggins

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/confounded-enigma-blind-tom-wiggins

To hear one of his compositions and to see a short video about him look here: