On Dec. 5, 1977, Ohio native and blind jazz virtuoso Rahsaan Roland Kirk died in Bloomington, Ind.

Kirk was born with a severe, unnamed eye condition in Columbus in 1936. He said that his blindness occurred after a nurse overmedicated his eyes when he was 2.

Educated at the Ohio School for the Blind in Columbus, he dropped out at 14 to pursue his first love - music.

His first instruments were the bugle and trumpet, but he loved anything that could make music and often played ordinary objects like a garden hose. He eventually mastered more than 40 instruments and often created new instruments out of old ones. When he dropped out of school, he began touring with local R&B bands in Cincinnati, Louisville and Indianapolis.

He moved to New York in 1960 and joined a band called Mingus the following year. His most productive period was between 1965 and 1975 when he recorded albums for Atlantic Records.

Kirk played alongside groups such as The Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8361