Nikola Tesla
1856-1943
Jimi Hendrix
1942-1970
Dubbed one of the greatest electric guitarists in the history of popular music, Hendrix utilized his synesthetic thinking when creating songs. While skeptics attribute his fantastical creativity to the amount of psychoactive drugs he consumed, Jimi claimed he saw the music as he played, and wrote songs based upon perceived colors.
Serbian-American inventor, electrical and mechanical engineer and physicist, is regarded as one of the world's most revered inventors. He refers to his synesthesia is his book, My Inventions: "When I drop little squares of paper in a dish filled with liquid, I always sense a peculiar and awful taste in my mouth.”
Duke Ellington was an American big-band leader, composer, and pianist. Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was a gifted composer and a monolithic figure in jazz, and his compositions encompassed many other genres including film, blues, classical, and gospel. His sound-color synesthesia was evident in his music. Ellington described the color of certain notes and how it was dependent on the musician:
“I hear a note by one of the fellows in the band and it’s one color. I hear the same note played by someone else and it’s a different color. When I hear sustained musical tones, I see just about the same colors that you do, but I see them in textures. If Harry Carney is playing, D is dark blue burlap. If Johnny Hodges is playing, G becomes light blue satin”
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech, Pirates of the Carribbean) confesses to having ordinal-linguistic synesthesia, in which the day's of the week have specific colors."Friday is dark maroon, a type of sienna, and Saturday is definitely white. Monday is a cool blue."
He links to attribute to his childhood, from the point he started learning numbers and letters.
Duke Ellington
1899-1974
Geoffrey Rush
1951-present
Synesthetes