Friday, May 24, 2013

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins Born May 25, 1849; 'The Ballad of Blind Tom' is on Elton John's album 'The Diving Board' due out in September 2013

[The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist: America's Lost Musical Genius; Deirdre O’Connell; Overlook Press (2009)]

Elton and drummer Jay Bellerose on stage at

Capitol Records Studio A April 11, 2013.
(Photo: Joseph Guay)

Deirdre O'Connell answered our inquiry about news of the pianist and composer Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908) for our birthday post for May 25:

Hi Bill,

Yes by chance some most interesting news. Elton John's new album The Diving Board is due for release in Sept 2013. It includes a 7 minute piece entitled The Ballad of Blind Tom, a tribute to Blind Tom Wiggins!!!
More details here.

Also Stephanie Jensen-Moulton's article for American Music Review is not particularly new (2011), but it offers some good insights.



Regards,
Deirdre

The next song was Ballad Of Blind Tom, also about an actual person; in this case "Blind Tom" Wiggins: a 19th-century slave whose being an autistic savant and piano prodigy took him off the plantation and made him one of the most popular performers of his time in America. The lyric here shifts from third person in the verses ("His black hands resting on the keys / Hoppin’ like a big old frog / And hissin’ like a train...") to first person in the chorus ("Play me anything you like / I'll play it back to you…") as Motown legend Jack Ashford locks the rhythm down on tambourine. 

Thomas“Blind Tom” Wiggins (1849-1908) was an African American pianist and composer. He was a blind and autistic slave who nevertheless was a musical genius. He is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a complete Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com

Since 2009, interest in the life and music of Thomas Wiggins has been increased due to the work of Deirdre O'Connell, an Australian writer whose highly readable biography is The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist: America's Lost Musical Genius.  The book's website is: http://www.blindtom.org/ Performances of piano works composed by Wiggins have become more numerous in recent years.

His profile at AfriClassical.com is based primarily on the book Blind Tom, The Black Pianist-Composer: Continually Enslaved, by the late Professor Geneva Handy Southall, who devoted her academic career to Wiggins. She points out that he never really gained his freedom or the control of his own earnings, even after the Civil War. 

Comments by email:

Dear Bill,  The late Geneva (Handy) Rhone Southall, professor at the University of Minnesota, published her extensive research on Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins that newer researchers may access at The Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago. Dr. Southall and Dr. Dominique-Rene de Lerma paved the way.  Musically yours, Barbara (Wright-Pryor

Not long before her retirement, Geneva called me with reference to [John Davis'] recording of Blind Tom's music.  He gave her next to no credit at all.  She was not bitter, and confessed he played the works well (dear Geneva was not a major piano talent).  Shame on anyone, however, who does not pay Geneva her due: she is the Blind Tom expert (three volumes) and source for probably anything anyone has to say about him.  Dominique-René de Lerma

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