I had this book, The Encyclopedia of Aberrations, which was a strange sort of book by a psychiatrist. I'm Martin Sharp and I first came across Blind Tom through. Martin Sharp: Here's the Encyclopedia of Aberrations and many interesting phenomena are described here: abasia, ablutomania, abnormal polychromate (that's someone who, some colours they just can't see), aboyament. Readers Sherre DeLys and Nicole Steinke Produced by Robyn Ravlich and Russell Stapleton Sound engineer Russell Stapletonīorn into slavery from which he was never truly freed, Blind Tom was a musical marvel. This program, first broadcast on Into the Music in 2009, won a silver medal in the Best Music Special category of the New York Radio Awards. He never gained his true freedom or the financial fruits of his astonishing performance career.Īll but forgotten since his death in 1908, Blind Tom's reputation is being restored with the advent of recordings of his remarkable piano compositions on the CD John Davis Plays Blind Tom, and a riveting new biography, The Ballad of Blind Tom by Deirdre O'Connell in which he is acknowledged as America's lost musical genius and most likely an autistic savant.Īppearing in the program are biographer Deirdre O'Connell, artist Martin Sharp, Professor Allan Snyder, Director of the Centre for the Mind at Sydney University, and concert pianist John Davis who performs The Rainstorm and The Battle of Manassas for the program.
And, despite the war ending and slavery being abolished, Tom remained indentured to his master and thereafter was judged non compos mentis in a legal battle to gain custody of the lucrative performer. It remained the centrepiece of his repertoire throughout his long performing life. His most famed musical work was The Battle of Manassas, a virtuosic work for piano and vocal sound effects that recreated an early Confederate victory during the American Civil War. This first Afro-American superstar composed his first piece of music The Rainstorm at the age of 5 and was soon performing on the concert circuit throughout the Southern states for his owner General Bethune and the Bethune family. Thomas Wiggins was born sightless, the last child in a large slave family, and soon developed a fascination with sound, becoming a magnet for it. In his lifetime Blind Tom was the toast of America and Europe, a Negro slave pianist who was regarded either as a musical genius or a moronic idiot with a freakish capacity to play any composition he heard once and an inimitable imitator of sounds and speeches.
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