Taj Mahal (musician)
Encyclopedia
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name
Taj Mahal, is an American
Grammy Award winning blues
musician. He incorporates elements of world music
into his music. A self-taught singer-songwriter
and film composer who plays the guitar
, banjo
and harmonica
(among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50 year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean
, Africa
and the South Pacific
.
. Raised in a musical environment, his mother was the member of a local gospel choir and his father was a West Indian jazz
arranger
and piano
player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music
. Early in childhood he recognized the stark differences between the popular music
of his day and the music that was played in his home. He also became interested in jazz
, enjoying the works of musicians such as Charles Mingus
, Thelonious Monk
and Milt Jackson
. His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance
, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his West Indian and African
ancestry through their stories.
Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of other musicians from the Caribbean
, Africa
, and the United States
. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., was called "The Genius" by Ella Fitzgerald
before starting his family. Early on, Henry Jr. developed an interest in African music, which he studied assiduously as a young man. His parents also encouraged him to pursue music, starting him out with classical piano lessons. He also studied the clarinet
, trombone
and harmonica
. When Mahal was eleven his father was killed in an accident at his own construction
company, crushed by a tractor
when it flipped over. This was an extremely traumatic experience for the boy. Mahal's mother later remarried. His stepfather owned a guitar which Taj began using at age 13 or 14, receiving his first lessons from a new neighbor from North Carolina
of his own age that played acoustic
blues guitar. His name was Lynwood Perry, the nephew
of the famous bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. In high school Mahal sang in a doo-wop
group.
For some time Mahal thought of pursuing farming over music. He had developed a passion for farming that nearly rivaled his love of music—coming to work on a farm first at age 16. It was a dairy farm in Palmer, Massachusetts
, not far from Springfield. By age nineteen he had become farm foreman
, getting up a bit after 4:00 a.m. and running the place. "I milked anywhere between thirty-five and seventy cows a day. I clipped udders. I grew corn. I grew Tennessee redtop clover. Alfalfa." Mahal believes in growing one's own food, saying, "You have a whole generation of kids who thinks everything comes out of a box and a can, and they don't know you can grow most of your food." Because of his personal support of the family farm
, Mahal regularly performs at Farm Aid
concerts.
Taj Mahal, his stage name
, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India
, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959 or 1961—around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts
. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture
school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization
, and majoring in animal husbandry
and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy
, Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college he led a rhythm and blues
band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the West Coast
, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.
, and formed Rising Sons
with fellow blues musician Ry Cooder
and Jessie Lee Kincaid, landing a record deal with Columbia Records
soon after. The group was one of the first interracial
bands of the period, which likely made them commercially unviable. An album was never released (though a single
was) and the band soon broke up, though Legacy Records did release The Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder in 1993 with material from that period. During this time Mahal was working with others, musicians like Howlin' Wolf
, Buddy Guy
, Lightnin' Hopkins
, and Muddy Waters
. Mahal stayed with Columbia after The Rising Sons to begin his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal in 1968, The Natch'l Blues in 1969, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home (also in 1969). During this time he and Cooder worked with The Rolling Stones
, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career. In 1968, he performed in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
. He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia Records
from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His work of the 1970s was especially important, in that his releases began incorporating West Indian and Caribbean
music, jazz
and reggae
into the mix. In 1972 he wrote the film score
for the movie Sounder
, which starred Cicely Tyson
.
In 1976 Mahal left Columbia Records
and signed with Warner Bros. Records
, recording three albums for them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers; the album shares the same name. After his time with Warner Bros. Records he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal
and disco
music.
Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981 and soon formed The Hula Blues Band. Originally just a group of guys getting together for fishing
and a good time, the band soon began performing regularly and touring.http://brudda.com/kilohana/taj.html He remained somewhat concealed from most eyes while working out of Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision. This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records
during this time.
In the 1990s he was on the Private Music
label, releasing albums full of blues
, pop
, R&B and rock
. He did collaborative works both with Eric Clapton
and Etta James
.
In 1998, in collaboration with renowned songwriter David Forman, producer Rick Chertoff and musicians Cyndi Lauper
, Willie Nile
, Joan Osborne
, Rob Hyman
, Garth Hudson
and Levon Helm
of The Band
, and The Chieftains
, he performed on the Americana
album Largo based on the music of Antonín Dvořák
.
In 1997 he won Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues
at the Grammy Awards, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000. He performed the theme song to the children's television show Peep and the Big Wide World
, which began broadcast in 2004.
In 2002, Mahal appeared on the Red Hot Organization
's compilation album Red Hot and Riot in tribute to Nigerian afropop musician Fela Kuti
. The Paul Heck produced album was widely acclaimed, and all proceeds from the record were donated to AIDS
charities.
and middle finger
when fingerpicking, rather than with his index finger
as the majority of guitar
players do. "I play with a flatpick
," he says, "when I do a lot of blues leads." Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues
singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed
, Son House
, Sleepy John Estes
, Big Mama Thornton
, Howlin' Wolf
, Mississippi John Hurt
, and Sonny Terry
. He describes his hanging out at clubs like Club 47 in Massachusetts and Ash Grove
in Los Angeles
as "basic building blocks in the development of his music." Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology
at the University of Massachusetts
would come to introduce him further to the folk music
of the Caribbean
and West Africa. Over time he incorporated more and more African roots music
into his musical palette, embracing elements of reggae
, calypso
, jazz
, zydeco
, rhythm and blues
, gospel music
, and the country blues
—each of which having "served as the foundation of his unique sound." According to The Rough Guide to Rock, "It has been said that Taj Mahal was one of the first major artists, if not the very first one, to pursue the possibilities of world music
. Even the blues he was playing in the early 70s — 'Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
' (1972), 'Mo' Roots
' (1974) — showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with flavours that always kept him a yard or so distant from being an out-and-out blues performer." Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has "an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry."
Taj Mahal believes that his 1999 album Kulanjan, which features him playing with the kora
master of Mali
's Griot
tradition Toumani Diabate
, "embodies his musical and cultural spirit arriving full circle." To him it was an experience that allowed him to reconnect with his African
heritage
, striking him with a sense of coming home. He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali
name, to drive this point home. Speaking of the experience and demonstrating the breadth of his eclecticism, he has said:
Taj Mahal has said he prefers to do outdoor performances, saying: "The music was designed for people to move, and it's a bit difficult after a while to have people sitting like they're watching television. That's why I like to play outdoor festivals-because people will just dance. Theatre audiences need to ask themselves: 'What the hell is going on? We're asking these musicians to come and perform and then we sit there and draw all the energy out of the air.' That's why after a while I need a rest. It's too much of a drain. Often I don't allow that. I just play to the goddess of music-and I know she's dancing."
(an African American
artform) for a predominantly white
audience. This has been a disappointment at times for Mahal, who recognizes there is a general lack of interest in blues music among many African Americans today. He has drawn a parallel comparison between the blues and rap
music in that they both were initially black forms of music that have come to be assimilated into the mainstream of society. He is quoted as saying, "Eighty-one percent of the kids listening to rap were not black kids. Once there was a tremendous amount of money involved in it . . . they totally moved it over to a material side. It just went off to a terrible direction." Mahal also believes that some people may think the blues are about wallowing in negativity and despair, a position he disagrees with. According to him, "You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don't ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down."
s (nine nominations) over his career.
On February 8, 2006 Taj Mahal was designated the official Blues Artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
.
On May 22, 2011, Taj Mahal received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He also made brief remarks and performed three songs. A video of the performance can be found on the Wofford Commencement 2011 website.
Live Albums
Compilations
Various Artists Featuring Taj Mahal
Movies
TV Shows
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Taj Mahal, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Grammy Award winning blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician. He incorporates elements of world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
into his music. A self-taught singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and film composer who plays the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
(among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50 year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
.
Early life
Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. on May 17, 1942 in Harlem, New York, Mahal grew up in Springfield, MassachusettsSpringfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...
. Raised in a musical environment, his mother was the member of a local gospel choir and his father was a West Indian jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. Early in childhood he recognized the stark differences between the popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
of his day and the music that was played in his home. He also became interested in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, enjoying the works of musicians such as Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
and Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
. His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his West Indian and African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
ancestry through their stories.
Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of other musicians from the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., was called "The Genius" by Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
before starting his family. Early on, Henry Jr. developed an interest in African music, which he studied assiduously as a young man. His parents also encouraged him to pursue music, starting him out with classical piano lessons. He also studied the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. When Mahal was eleven his father was killed in an accident at his own construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
company, crushed by a tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
when it flipped over. This was an extremely traumatic experience for the boy. Mahal's mother later remarried. His stepfather owned a guitar which Taj began using at age 13 or 14, receiving his first lessons from a new neighbor from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
of his own age that played acoustic
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
blues guitar. His name was Lynwood Perry, the nephew
Nephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
of the famous bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup. In high school Mahal sang in a doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
group.
For some time Mahal thought of pursuing farming over music. He had developed a passion for farming that nearly rivaled his love of music—coming to work on a farm first at age 16. It was a dairy farm in Palmer, Massachusetts
Palmer, Massachusetts
The Town of Palmer is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,140 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, not far from Springfield. By age nineteen he had become farm foreman
Construction foreman
A construction foreman is the worker or tradesman who is in charge of a construction crew. While traditionally this role has been assumed by a senior male worker, the title in the modern sense is gender non-specific in intent...
, getting up a bit after 4:00 a.m. and running the place. "I milked anywhere between thirty-five and seventy cows a day. I clipped udders. I grew corn. I grew Tennessee redtop clover. Alfalfa." Mahal believes in growing one's own food, saying, "You have a whole generation of kids who thinks everything comes out of a box and a can, and they don't know you can grow most of your food." Because of his personal support of the family farm
Family farm
A family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family, and often passed down from generation to generation. It is the basic unit of the mostly agricultural economy of much of human history and continues to be so in developing nations...
, Mahal regularly performs at Farm Aid
Farm Aid
Farm Aid started as a benefit concert on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, held to raise money for family farmers in the United States...
concerts.
Taj Mahal, his stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959 or 1961—around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization
National FFA Organization
The National FFA Organization is an American youth organization known as a Career and Technical Student Organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education...
, and majoring in animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
, Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college he led a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.
Career
In 1964 he moved to Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, and formed Rising Sons
Rising Sons
Rising Sons was a Los Angeles, California-based band founded in 1964. The original lineup was Ry Cooder , Taj Mahal , Gary Marker , Jesse Lee Kincaid and Ed Cassidy...
with fellow blues musician Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
and Jessie Lee Kincaid, landing a record deal with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
soon after. The group was one of the first interracial
Multiracial
The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with...
bands of the period, which likely made them commercially unviable. An album was never released (though a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
was) and the band soon broke up, though Legacy Records did release The Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder in 1993 with material from that period. During this time Mahal was working with others, musicians like Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Lightnin' Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas...
, and Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
. Mahal stayed with Columbia after The Rising Sons to begin his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal in 1968, The Natch'l Blues in 1969, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home (also in 1969). During this time he and Cooder worked with The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career. In 1968, he performed in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
. He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His work of the 1970s was especially important, in that his releases began incorporating West Indian and Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
music, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
into the mix. In 1972 he wrote the film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for the movie Sounder
Sounder (film)
Sounder is a 1972 film starring Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, Eric Hooks and Janet MacLachlan. It was adapted by Lonne Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt from the 1970 Newbery Medal-winning novel Sounder by William H...
, which starred Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....
.
In 1976 Mahal left Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
and signed with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, recording three albums for them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers; the album shares the same name. After his time with Warner Bros. Records he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
music.
Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981 and soon formed The Hula Blues Band. Originally just a group of guys getting together for fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and a good time, the band soon began performing regularly and touring.http://brudda.com/kilohana/taj.html He remained somewhat concealed from most eyes while working out of Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision. This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records
Hannibal Records
Hannibal Records was a record label and one of the first to work with the World music genre.Hannibal was started by Joe Boyd in 1980. Boyd had produced records by artists such as Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention and released recordings by these artists as well as...
during this time.
In the 1990s he was on the Private Music
Private Music
Private Music is a United States record company founded in 1984 by experimental musician Peter Baumann, as a home for instrumental music. Initially signing such artists as Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Patrick O'Hearn, and Baumann's former bandmates Tangerine Dream, the record label specialized in New Age...
label, releasing albums full of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, R&B and rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. He did collaborative works both with Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
and Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
.
In 1998, in collaboration with renowned songwriter David Forman, producer Rick Chertoff and musicians Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Willie Nile
Willie Nile
Willie Nile is an American singer-songwriter. In 1980 Nile released his self-titled debut album which according to one critic remains “one of the most thrilling post-Byrds folk-rock albums of all time”...
, Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.-Biography:Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb...
, Rob Hyman
Rob Hyman
Robert Andrew "Rob" Hyman is an American singer, songwriter, keyboard player, accordion player, producer, arranger and recording studio owner, best known for being a founding member of the rock band The Hooters.-Early life:Hyman started taking piano lessons at the age of four and grew up playing...
, Garth Hudson
Garth Hudson
Eric Garth Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist. As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for Canadian-American rock group The Band, he was a principal architect of the group's unique sound...
and Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
of The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, and The Chieftains
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
, he performed on the Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
album Largo based on the music of Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
.
In 1997 he won Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues
Señor Blues
Señor Blues is a 1997 album by blues musician Taj Mahal, featuring a cover of James Brown's "Think". It won Best Contemporary Blues Album - or Contemporary Blues Recording at that year's Grammy Awards....
at the Grammy Awards, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000. He performed the theme song to the children's television show Peep and the Big Wide World
Peep and the Big Wide World
Peep and the Big Wide World is an animated cartoon that teaches nature and basic science concepts to preschoolers. The main characters include a baby chicken named Peep and his friends Quack, a blue duck, and Chirp, a red robin with purple eyelids...
, which began broadcast in 2004.
In 2002, Mahal appeared on the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
's compilation album Red Hot and Riot in tribute to Nigerian afropop musician Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
. The Paul Heck produced album was widely acclaimed, and all proceeds from the record were donated to AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
charities.
Musical style
Mahal leads with his thumbThumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position , the thumb is the lateral-most digit...
and middle finger
Middle finger
The middle finger or long finger is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is usually the longest finger...
when fingerpicking, rather than with his index finger
Index finger
The index finger, , is the first finger and the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the first and third digits, between the thumb and the middle finger...
as the majority of guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
players do. "I play with a flatpick
Guitar pick
A guitar pick is a plectrum used for guitars. A pick is generally made of one uniform material; examples include plastic, nylon, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, and stone...
," he says, "when I do a lot of blues leads." Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Son House
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...
, Sleepy John Estes
Sleepy John Estes
John Adam Estes , best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.-Career:...
, Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...
, Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
, Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
, and Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.-Career:Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia...
. He describes his hanging out at clubs like Club 47 in Massachusetts and Ash Grove
Ash Grove (music club)
The Ash Grove was a folk music club located at 8162 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, founded in 1958 by Ed Pearl and named after the Welsh folk song, "The Ash Grove."...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as "basic building blocks in the development of his music." Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
at the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
would come to introduce him further to the folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
of the Caribbean
Caribbean music
The music of the Caribbean is a diverse grouping of musical genres. They are each syntheses of African, European, Indian and native influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves...
and West Africa. Over time he incorporated more and more African roots music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
into his musical palette, embracing elements of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, zydeco
Zydeco
Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and the country blues
Country blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
—each of which having "served as the foundation of his unique sound." According to The Rough Guide to Rock, "It has been said that Taj Mahal was one of the first major artists, if not the very first one, to pursue the possibilities of world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. Even the blues he was playing in the early 70s — 'Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff is an American blues album by Taj Mahal. Tracks 1-7 were recorded live; tracks 8-11 are studio recordings.-Track listing:All songs written by Taj Mahal except as noted.# "Conch Intro" – :30...
' (1972), 'Mo' Roots
Mo' Roots
Mo' Roots is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "Johnny Too Bad" # "Black Jack Davey"# "Big Mama"# "Cajun Waltz"# "Slave Driver"...
' (1974) — showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with flavours that always kept him a yard or so distant from being an out-and-out blues performer." Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has "an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry."
Taj Mahal believes that his 1999 album Kulanjan, which features him playing with the kora
Kora (instrument)
The kora is a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa.-Description:A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge. It does not fit well into any one category of western instruments and would have to be...
master of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
's Griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
tradition Toumani Diabate
Toumani Diabaté
Toumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.-Biography:...
, "embodies his musical and cultural spirit arriving full circle." To him it was an experience that allowed him to reconnect with his African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
, striking him with a sense of coming home. He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali
Jali
A jali is the term for a perforated stone or latticed screen, usually with an ornamental pattern constructed through the use of calligraphy and geometry. Early work was performed by carving into stone, while the later more elegant used by the Mughals employed the technique of inlay, using marble...
name, to drive this point home. Speaking of the experience and demonstrating the breadth of his eclecticism, he has said:
The microphones are listening in on a conversation between a 350-year old orphan and its long-lost birth parents. I've got so much other music to play. But the point is that after recording with these Africans, basically if I don't play guitar for the rest of my life, that's fine with me....With Kulanjan, I think that Afro-Americans have the opportunity to not only see the instruments and the musicians, but they also see more about their culture and recognize the faces, the walks, the hands, the voices, and the sounds that are not the blues. Afro-American audiences had their eyes really opened for the first time. This was exciting for them to make this connection and pay a little more attention to this music than before.
Taj Mahal has said he prefers to do outdoor performances, saying: "The music was designed for people to move, and it's a bit difficult after a while to have people sitting like they're watching television. That's why I like to play outdoor festivals-because people will just dance. Theatre audiences need to ask themselves: 'What the hell is going on? We're asking these musicians to come and perform and then we sit there and draw all the energy out of the air.' That's why after a while I need a rest. It's too much of a drain. Often I don't allow that. I just play to the goddess of music-and I know she's dancing."
Views on the blues
Throughout his career, Mahal has performed his brand of bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
(an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
artform) for a predominantly white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
audience. This has been a disappointment at times for Mahal, who recognizes there is a general lack of interest in blues music among many African Americans today. He has drawn a parallel comparison between the blues and rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
music in that they both were initially black forms of music that have come to be assimilated into the mainstream of society. He is quoted as saying, "Eighty-one percent of the kids listening to rap were not black kids. Once there was a tremendous amount of money involved in it . . . they totally moved it over to a material side. It just went off to a terrible direction." Mahal also believes that some people may think the blues are about wallowing in negativity and despair, a position he disagrees with. According to him, "You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don't ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down."
Awards
Taj Mahal has received two Grammy AwardGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s (nine nominations) over his career.
- 1997 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor BluesSeñor BluesSeñor Blues is a 1997 album by blues musician Taj Mahal, featuring a cover of James Brown's "Think". It won Best Contemporary Blues Album - or Contemporary Blues Recording at that year's Grammy Awards....
- 2000 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Shoutin' in Key
- 2006 (Blues Music Awards) Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal
- 2008 (Grammy Nomination) Best Contemporary Blues Album for MaestroMaestro (Taj Mahal Album)Maestro is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal. It was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards ....
On February 8, 2006 Taj Mahal was designated the official Blues Artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
On May 22, 2011, Taj Mahal received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He also made brief remarks and performed three songs. A video of the performance can be found on the Wofford Commencement 2011 website.
Discography
Studio Albums- 1968 - Taj MahalTaj Mahal (album)Taj Mahal is the debut American blues album by Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Leaving Trunk" – 4:51# "Statesboro Blues" – 2:59# "Checkin' Up on My Baby" – 4:55...
- 1968 - The Natch'l Blues
- 1969 - Giant Step/De Ole Folks at HomeGiant Step/De Ole Folks at HomeGiant Step/De Ole Folks at Home is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal. Giant Step is electric, while De Ole Folks at Home is acoustic. Esquire Magazine included this album on their March 9, 2009 list of "The 75 Albums Every Man Should Own."-Track listing:Giant Step# "Ain't Gwine Whistle...
- 1971 - Happy Just to Be Like I AmHappy Just to Be Like I AmHappy Just to Be Like I Am is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "Happy Just to Be Like I Am" # "Stealin'" # "Oh, Susannah"...
- 1972 - Recycling The Blues & Other Related StuffRecycling The Blues & Other Related StuffRecycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff is an American blues album by Taj Mahal. Tracks 1-7 were recorded live; tracks 8-11 are studio recordings.-Track listing:All songs written by Taj Mahal except as noted.# "Conch Intro" – :30...
- 1973 - Oooh So Good 'n BluesOooh So Good 'n BluesOooh So Good 'n Blues is an American blues album by Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Buck Dancer's Choice" # "Little Red Hen" # "Oh Mama Don't You Know" # "Frankie and Albert" # "Railroad Bill"...
- 1974 - Mo' RootsMo' RootsMo' Roots is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "Johnny Too Bad" # "Black Jack Davey"# "Big Mama"# "Cajun Waltz"# "Slave Driver"...
- 1975 - Music Keeps Me TogetherMusic Keeps Me TogetherMusic Keeps Me Together is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "Music Keeps Me Together"# "When I Feel the Sea Beneath My Soul"# "Dear Ladies"# "Aristocracy"...
- 1976 - Satisfied 'N Tickled TooSatisfied 'N Tickled TooSatisfied 'N Tickled Too is a 1976 album by Taj Mahal and was released on the Columbia Records label.-Track listing:# "Satisfied 'n Tickled Too" # "New E-Z Rider Blues" # "Black Man, Brown Man"...
- 1976 - Music Fuh Ya' (Musica Para Tu)Music Fuh Ya' (Musica Para Tu)Music Fuh Ya' is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "You Got It"# "Freight Train"# "Baby, You're My Destiny"#"Sailin' Into Walkers Cay"# "Truck Driver's Two Step"# "The Four Mills Brothers"# "Honey Babe"...
- 1977 - Brothers (Soundtrack)Brothers (Soundtrack)Brothers is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Love Theme in the Key of D"# "Funky Butt"# "Brother's Doin' Time"# "Night Rider"# "Free the Brothers"# "Sentidos Dulce "# "Funeral March"...
- 1977 - Evolution (The Most Recent)Evolution (The Most Recent)Evolution is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Sing A Happy Song"# "Queen Bee"# "Why You Do Me This Way"# "Salsa De Laventille"# "Most Recent Of Muthafusticus"# "Lowdown Showdown"...
- 1987 - TajTaj (Taj Mahal Album)Taj is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Everybody Is Somebody"# "Paradise"# "Do I Love Her"# "Light of the Pacific"# "'Deed I Do"# "Soothin'"# "Pillow Talk"# "Local Local Girl"# "Kauai Kalypso"# "French Letter"...
- 1988 - Shake SugareeShake SugareeShake Sugaree is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Fishin' Blues"# "Brown Girl In The Ring"# "Light Rain"# "Quavi, Quavi"# "Shake Sugaree"# "Funky Bluesy ABC's"# "Talkin' John Henry"# "Railroad Bill"# "A Soulful Tune"...
- 1991 - Mule BoneMule Bone (Taj Mahal Album)Mule Bone is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Jubilee "# "Graveyard Mule "# "Me and the Mule"# "Song for a Banjo Dance"# "But I Rode Some"# "Hey Hey Blues"# "Shake That Thing"...
- 1991 - Like Never BeforeLike Never BeforeLike Never Before is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Don't Call Us"# "River of Love"# "Scattered"# "Ev'ry Wind "# "Blues with a Feeling"# "Squat That Rabbit"# "Take All the Time You Need"# "Love Up"...
- 1993 - Dancing the BluesDancing the BluesDancing the Blues is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Reception:Allmusic gave a positive review of the album, calling the music "inclusive" and "eclectic", and praising a number of the individual tracks.-Track listing:...
- 1995 - Mumtaz MahalMumtaz Mahal (Taj Mahal Album)Mumtaz Mahal is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal, N. Ravikiran, and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.-Track listing:# "Coming of the Mandinka"# "Come On in My Kitchen"# "Rolling on the Sea"# "Mary Don't You Weep"# "Stand by Me"# "Johnny Too Bad"...
(with V.M. Bhatt and N. Ravikiran) - 1996 - Phantom BluesPhantom BluesPhantom Blues is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes"# "Cheatin' on You"# "The Hustle Is On"# "Here in the Dark"# "Fanning the Flames"# "I Need Your Loving"# "Ooh Poo Pah Doo"# "Lonely Avenue"...
- 1997 - Señor BluesSeñor BluesSeñor Blues is a 1997 album by blues musician Taj Mahal, featuring a cover of James Brown's "Think". It won Best Contemporary Blues Album - or Contemporary Blues Recording at that year's Grammy Awards....
- 1998 - Sacred IslandSacred IslandSacred Island is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "The Calypsonians"# "Coconut Man"# "Sacred Island "# "Betty and Dupree"...
aka Hula Blues (with The Hula Blues Band) - 1999 - KulanjanKulanjan-Track listing:# "Queen Bee"# "Tunkaranke"# "Ol' Georgie Buck"# "Kulanjan"# "Fanta"# "Guede Man Na"# "Catfish Blues"# "K'an Ben"# "Take This Hammer"# "Atlanta Kaira"# "Mississippi-Mali Blues"# "Sahara"...
(with Toumani DiabatéToumani DiabatéToumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.-Biography:...
) - 2000 - Hanapepe DreamHanapepe DreamHanapepe Dream is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Great Big Boat"# "Black Jack Day"# "Moonlight Lady"# "King Edward's Throne"# "African Herbsman"# "Baby You're My Destiny"# "Stagger Lee"# "Living' On Easy"...
- 2005 - Mkutano Meets the Culture Musical Club of ZanzibarMkutano Meets the Culture Musical Club of ZanzibarMkutano Meets the Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All songs written by Taj Mahal except as noted.# "Dhow Countries" – 7:48# "Muhoga wa jang'ombe" – 6:11...
- 2008 - MaestroMaestro (Taj Mahal Album)Maestro is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal. It was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards ....
Live Albums
- 1971 - The Real ThingThe Real Thing (Taj Mahal album)The Real Thing is a 1971 live album by Taj Mahal. It was recorded on February 13, 1971 at the Fillmore East in New York City and features Taj Mahal backed by a band that includes four tuba players.-Track listing:...
- 1972 - Recycling The Blues & Other Related StuffRecycling The Blues & Other Related StuffRecycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff is an American blues album by Taj Mahal. Tracks 1-7 were recorded live; tracks 8-11 are studio recordings.-Track listing:All songs written by Taj Mahal except as noted.# "Conch Intro" – :30...
- 1972 - Big Sur Festival - One Hand Clapping
- 1979 - Live & DirectLive & Direct (Taj Mahal album)Live & Direct is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Jorge Ben"# "Reggae Number 1"# "You're Gonna Need Somebody"# "Little Brown Dog"# "Take a Giant Step - Taj Mahal"# "L-O-V-E, Love"# "And Who"# "Suva Serenade"...
- 1990 - Live at Ronnie Scott'sLive at Ronnie Scott's (Taj Mahal Album)Live at Ronnie Scott's is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Big Blues"# "Mail Box Blues"# "Stagger Lee"# "Come on in My Kitchen"# "Local, Local Girl"# "Soothin'"# "Fishin' Blues"# "Statesboro' Blues"...
- 1996 - An Evening of Acoustic MusicAn Evening of Acoustic MusicAn Evening of Acoustic Music is a live album by American blues artist Taj Mahal. It was recorded June 10, 1993 in Bremen, Germany at Modernes.-Track listing:# "Stagger Lee"# "Dust My Broom"# "Take This Hammer"# "Blues with a Feeling"...
- 2000 - Shoutin' in KeyShoutin' in KeyShoutin' in Key is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Honky Tonk"# "EZ Rider"# "Ain't That a Lot of Love"# "Ev'ry Wind "# "Stranger in My Own Home Town"# "Woulda Coulda Shoulda"# "Leaving Trunk"...
- 2004 - Live CatchLive CatchLive Catch is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Black Jack Davey"# "New Hula Blues"# "Good Morning Miss Brown"# "Annie Mae"# "Fishin' Blues"# "Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue"# "Big Blues"# "Creole Belle"...
Compilations
- 1980 - Going HomeGoing Home (Taj Mahal album)Going Home is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Statesboro Blues"# "Dust My Broom"# "You Don't Miss Your Water"# "Good Morning Miss Brown"# "Six Days On The Road"# "Sweet Home Chicago"# "Little Red Hen"...
- 1981 - The Best of Taj Mahal, Volume 1 - Columbia RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
- 1992 - Taj's BluesTaj's BluesTaj's Blues is a compilation album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Leaving Trunk" — from Taj Mahal # "Statesboro Blues" — from Taj Mahal # "Everybody's Got To Change Sometime" — from Taj Mahal...
- 1993 - World MusicWorld Music (Taj Mahal Album)World Music is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Taj Mahal; except where indicated# "When I Feel the Sea Beneath My Soul"# "My Ancestors"# "Slave Driver" # "West Indian Revelation"# "Ta"...
- 1998 - In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998 is a compilation album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:Disc 1# "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond"# "Corrina"# "Checkin' Up on My Baby"# "Leavin' Trunk"# "Buck Dancer's Choice"...
- 1999 - Blue Light Boogie
- 2000 - The Best of Taj MahalThe Best of Taj MahalThe Best of Taj Mahal is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Stateboro Blues"# "Leaving Trunk"# "Corrina"# "Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue"# "She Caught The Katy And Left Me A Mule"# "Take A Giant Step"...
- 2000 - The Best of the Private YearsThe Best of the Private YearsThe Best of the Private Years is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Blues Ain't Nothin'"# "Here In The Dark"# "Mind Your Own Business"# "Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes"# "Senor Blues"# "Ooh Poo Pah Doo"# "Hoochi Coochi Coo"...
- 2001 - Sing a Happy Song: The Warner Bros. RecordingsSing a Happy Song: The Warner Bros. RecordingsSing a Happy Song: The Warner Bros. Recordings is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:Disc 1# "You Got It"# "Freight Train"# "Baby, You're My Destiny"# "Sailin' Into Walker's Cay"# "Truck Driver's Two-Step"...
- 2003 - Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Taj MahalMartin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Taj MahalMartin Scorsese Presents the Blues – Taj Mahal is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Leaving Trunk"# "Dust My Broom"# "Corrina"# "Chevrolet"# "Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue"...
- 2003 - Blues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj MahalBlues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj MahalBlues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj Mahal is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:# "Señor Blues"# "Don't Call Us"# " Love Her with a Feeling"# "Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes"# "Betty and Dupree"...
- 2005 - The Essential Taj MahalThe Essential Taj MahalThe Essential Taj Mahal is an album by American blues artist Taj Mahal.-Track listing:Disc 1# "Leaving Trunk"# "Statesboro Blues"# "Celebrated Walkin' Blues"# "She Caught the Katy "# "Corinna"...
Various Artists Featuring Taj Mahal
- 1968 - The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (album)The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is the fifth release of The Rolling Stones music by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein...
- 1968 - The Rock Machine Turns You On
- 1970 - Fill Your Head With Rock
- 1985 - Conjure - Music for the Texts of Ishmael ReedIshmael ReedIshmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.Reed has been described as one of the most controversial...
- 1990 - The Hot SpotThe Hot SpotThe Hot Spot is a 1990 American drama film directed by Dennis Hopper and based on the 1952 book Hell Hath No Fury by Charles Williams. It stars Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly, and features a score by Jack Nitzsche played by John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal and Roy...
- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - 1991 - Vol Pour Sidney- one title, other tracks by Charlie WattsCharlie WattsCharles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
, Elvin JonesElvin JonesElvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, Pepsi, The Lonely Bears, Lee KonitzLee KonitzLee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
and others. - 1992 - Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry CooderRy CooderRyland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
- 1992 - Smilin' Island of Song by Cedella Marley Booker and Taj Mahal.
- 1993 - The Source by Ali Farka TouréAli Farka TouréAli Ibrahim “Farka” Touré was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues...
(World Circuit WCD030 / Hannibal 1375) - 1993 - Peace Is the World Smiling
- 1997 - Follow the Drinking Gourd
- 1997 - Shakin' a Tailfeather
- 1998 - Scrapple Soundtrack
- 1998 - Largo
- 1999 - Hippity Hop
- 2002 - Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues (Rhino), contributing his version of "Outskirts of Town"
- 2002 - Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III lead in and first verse of title song, with Nitty Gritty Dirt BandNitty Gritty Dirt BandThe Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
, Alison KraussAlison KraussAlison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
, Doc WatsonDoc WatsonArthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded... - 2004 - Musicmakers with Taj Mahal (Music MakerMusic Maker (label)Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit record label, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day to day needs...
49) - 2004 - Etta BakerEtta BakerEtta Baker was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States.-Biography:...
with Taj Mahal (Music MakerMusic Maker (label)Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit record label, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day to day needs...
50) - 2007 - Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats DominoGoin' Home: A Tribute to Fats DominoGoin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino is a 2007 tribute album by various artists to Fats Domino, issued by Vanguard Records.-History:In contrast to an earlier tribute album, That's Fats: A Tribute to Fats Domino , which mostly contained previously released cover versions, Goin' Home: A Tribute to...
(VanguardVanguard RecordsVanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
), contributing his version of "My Girl JosephineMy Girl Josephine"My Girl Josephine" is a song written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Domino recorded the song on Imperial records in 1960, and it charted #7 on the Billboard R&B charts and #14 on the Billboard pop charts.-Covers:...
". - 2009 - American Horizon with Los CenzontlesLos CenzontlesLos Cenzontles is a Mexican-American Roots band, heavily influenced by Tejano music, country music, rock and roll, and traditional Mexican regional music such as Son Jarocho and boleros...
and David HidalgoDavid HidalgoDavid Hidalgo is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. He is also a member of the supergroup Los Super Seven and of the Latin Playboys, a side project band made up of some of the members of Los Lobos... - 2011 - Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center with Wynton MarsalisWynton MarsalisWynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
and Eric ClaptonEric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, playing on Just a Closer Walk With Thee and Corrine, Corrina
Filmography
Live DVDs- 2006 - Taj Mahal/Phantom Blues Band Live at St. Lucia
- 2011 - Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center with Wynton MarsalisWynton MarsalisWynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
and Eric ClaptonEric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, playing on Just a Closer Walk With Thee and Corrine, Corrina
Movies
- 1972 - Sounder
- 1991 - Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
- 1998 - Six Days Seven Nights
- 1998 - Blues Brothers 2000
- 1998 - Scrapple
- 2000 - Songcatcher
- 2002 - Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
TV Shows
- 2004 - Theme song Peep and the Big Wide WorldPeep and the Big Wide WorldPeep and the Big Wide World is an animated cartoon that teaches nature and basic science concepts to preschoolers. The main characters include a baby chicken named Peep and his friends Quack, a blue duck, and Chirp, a red robin with purple eyelids...