Valerie Capers, a Legendary Pioneers of Jazz artist, released her 1995 Columbia record, Come on Home. However, she is too obscure and under-recorded not to be considered a legend and certainly not a pioneer. Before losing her sight at six years old, she was able to pick out songs from the piano. She was blind, but she learned Braille music reading and became the first blind graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. She was a classical pianist at the time but was drawn to jazz and soon began working with Mongo Santamaria. Capers recorded her first date for Atlantic in 1965. 17 years later, Capers would record her second date, a self-produced album for the small KM Arts label. It would take 13 more years for her Columbia set. Capers worked with Ray Brown and Slide Hampton in the interim. She was mostly employed as an educator at a high level. Wagner takes the “A” Train on Elysium in 1999.
