Since becoming the first blind person to ever graduate from the esteemed Juilliard School in 1959, pianist Valerie Capers has been an effervescent presence on the New York music scene as a performer, composer and educator.
Born into a musical family in The Bronx, Capers began singing at a young age with her pianist father who played in swing bands and at parties with his friend Fats Waller, but at six-years-old she suffered with streptococcus and rheumatic fever and lost her sight. Inspired by hearing Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' soundtrack and Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite', she naturally gravitated to the piano and picked up a good understanding of classical music whilst schooling at the New York Institute of the Blind; she then went on to study composition and performance at Juilliard where she rediscovered her jazz roots.
Her debut album 'Portrait in Soul' for Atlantic Records in 1965 displayed her ability as both a classical soloist and a jumping, bebop expert, and she became a regular at clubs and festivals and had her arrangements performed by Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria, the legendary Dizzy Gillespie and double bass master Ray Brown. She taught at the Manhattan School of Music in the 1970s and was head of the music department at The Bronx Community College in the 1980s and '90s, but her rare opportunities to record were limited to 1982's 'Affirmation' and 1995's 'Come On Home' for Columbia, which featured trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera. Her later album 'Wagner Takes The "A" Train' showcased her classical training alongside a love of Thelonious Monk and George Gershwin and her voice grew in stature and passion over the years, drawing comparisons to Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.
