I've been a member of the National Federation of the Blind for many years. (I'm using a 40-inch TV as my computer monitor to type these words, with my face about eight inches from the huge screen.) I also play the accordion, and I have always greatly admired the blind musician Leon Sash. You can read about Sash at Wikipedia.
A while ago, I'd been thinking of writing something about enjoying Leon Sash's work, and somehow while hunting for images of him, I came across photo after photo of blind musicians with their accordions. Not totally surprising, as musically-talented blind people have often ended up with careers as music performers -- George Shearing and Diana Schorr come to mind, besides of course Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder -- or as piano tuners. And all over the world, some blind people earn their livings as buskers. This last job has been a mixed blessing for sure, but perhaps preferable to making brooms in "sheltered workshops," as lower-skilled blind adults did in Indiana when I was growing up.
I'll tell you what, though: As I was assembling these photos, I wondered how often the street performers were asked if it was all right to take their pictures. It's one thing to be in show business, where publicity is part of the package and you expect to have candid and posed photos taken of you. It's another thing to have sighted people looking at you, unaware that many blind people actually have enough eyesight to be aware that they are being looked at like an interesting zoo exhibit. And that they may be perfectly aware that someone is photographing them, whether the person with the camera or phone announces that or not, let alone ask permission.
And yet, here I am myself, posting these photos I accidentally found while searching for images of Leon Sash with his accordion.
To finish today's post, here's Leon Sash with his Quintet, playing the jazz standard "Cherokee."
And iIf you enjoyed that, a website called jazzdisco.org has this great listing of Leon Sash recordings.
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