Taj Mahal

[KIPMEISTER]

Any fans here of Taj Mahal, if so can you recommend some of his better albums.

[Dave (in MA)]

Not really, but I'll be interested in the follow-up posts.

The Largo album is pretty good, though he's only on this one track:



Roger Daltrey's been covering this in recent years, apparently.

Garth!

[wideopenears]

I'm a fan....I have a Live album from Yoshi's that covers his current vibe....good stuff.

[progeezer]

Interesting dude. Father was a college prof & Taj graduated from Brown Univ.

Who says you have to be born into a life of poverty in Mississippi to (effectively) sing the blues?

Saw him live way back when at Fillmore East back in the days when Bill Graham made eclectic 3-act bills an art form. IIRC, he played the same night as Quicksilver and The Move.

[Vic2012]

I can't really say I'm a fan but I think his performance on "The Rolling Stones Rock 'N' Roll Circus" is the highlight of the show. Yes, of course I like Jethro's performance, The Who, and The Stones but I really love what Taj does. Will I go out and buy a Taj Mahal record? Probably not, but that performance on that film is GREAT!

[mogrooves]

Those early LPs with Jesse Ed Davis are killer-dillers.

Saw him live way back when at Fillmore East....IIRC, he played the same night as Quicksilver and The Move.

I'm fairly certain that The Move didn't play the Fillmore East; they did, however, play the Fillmore West, where they were recorded.
I caught Mahal at Fillmore East with Mayall and BB King. Good times.

[Baribrotzer]

Interesting dude. Father was a college prof & Taj graduated from Brown Univ.

Interesting indeed. I know he used to be quite secretive about his real name and background, which he attributed to some kind of bad divorce proceedings. But it didn't hit me that maybe the reason was that he was "inauthentic". Also, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Jr. doesn't really sound like the name of a bluesman.

[N_Singh]

Interesting indeed. I know he used to be quite secretive about his real name and background, which he attributed to some kind of bad divorce proceedings. But it didn't hit me that maybe the reason was that he was "inauthentic". Also, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Jr. doesn't really sound like the name of a bluesman.

it could be worse --Thurston (Howell) Moore III

[spellbound]

I would start with the early albums and work forward from there. I saw Taj Mahal in two separate solo concerts in the early '90s. Just the man, his guitar, and that wonderful voice.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

This week on the Muscle Shoals documentary, Gregg Allman told a story of how the first Taj Mahal LP and Jesse Ed Davis's slide playing was a big inspiration to Duane's slide playing.

[Sputnik]

Father was a college prof & Taj graduated from Brown Univ.

Not saying you are wrong, but this is not the background I'm aware of. As I understand it, Mahal's father was a jazz pianist who also owned a construction company, where he was killed in an accident when Mahal was young. His mother remarried, perhaps his stepfather was the college professor?

I know Mahal attended my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts, where he got an associates degree from the Stockbridge School of Agricultures in 1963 (the year I was born). He attended various schools in the Springfield, MA area before attending UMass, but I can find no reference of him attending Brown. In 2006, Mahal was given an honorary degree from UMass. Here is the bio from that ceremony, that suggests three of his "seminal" albums:

"Taj Mahal, born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in New York’s Harlem on May 17, 1942, grew up in Springfield, Mass., in a home filled with music. His father was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother, a schoolteacher from South Carolina, was an accomplished gospel singer. His parents encouraged their children to develop pride in and respect for their heritage, yet his first formal study of music came in the form of classical piano lessons. Two years of that convinced him that “I had my own concept of how I wanted to play.” He went on to learn clarinet, trombone and harmonica, and to sing. When an accomplished guitarist, Lynnwood Perry, moved next door, Taj Mahal borrowed his stepfather’s guitar and took inspiration from Perry’s mastery of a broad range of blues styles.

After attending Springfield schools, Taj Mahal earned an associate’s degree in animal science in 1963 from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst. While at UMass Amherst he played with a popular party band, the Elektras and began assuming the identity of “Taj Mahal.” In 1964, he traveled to Los Angeles and became part of The Rising Sons, a group that opened for such acts as Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Martha and the Vandellas. He also met and played with such stellar bluesmen as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Taj Mahal went on to produce three seminal albums in a row: Taj Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues (1968) and Giant Steps/De Old Folks at Home (1969). They were marked by the restlessly expanding eclecticism that he has exercised ever since, including forays into movie soundtracks, children’s recordings, and collaborations with a wide array of musicians from traditions the world over. Taj Mahal has earned nine Grammy Awards and has his own independent record label, Kandu Records. He was voted the official blues artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts earlier this year."

I saw Taj Mahal at a free concert on the UMass pond in the early 1980s. He played solo on a beat up old round hole archtop acoustic, and it was really cool. He was followed by Toots and the Maytals, and then Billy Cobham's band. Memorable show.

Bill

[Reid]

I'd recommend his album Senor Blues, recorded in the late 90s. It's a great sounding record featuring an interesting batch of material and excellent band. And Mahal's vocals are in top form. His cover of the Horace Silver title track is a modern day classic, imo.

[progeezer]

Bill - you may well be right about "stepfather vs. biological father", but he himself alluded to graduating from Brown in an interview I distinctly remember from the late 60s.

The other possibility is that he was spewing idle bullshit at the time I (know I) heard the Brown reference. Maybe it was talking. After all, he was still young then.

[jkelman]

The Complete Columbia Albums Collection, released last year by Legacy Recordings, is worthwhile to get a broader picture of Taj, from the mid-'60s Rising Sons (also including Ry Cooder, though Cooder has more or less disowned the album - why I don't know as I quite like it) through what are some of his best - 1968's The Natch'l Blues and Taj Mahal (from the same year), through 1969's double-disc De Ole Folks at Home/Giants Steps and the two discs of unreleased studio and live material that's got some truly great stuff on it, especially the live tracks. His career has not been totally consistent, so there are some weaker discs in the bunch, but even those are worthwhile.

But if looking for just a couple discs, I'd go with Taj Mahal & The Natch'l Blues; they're both terrific, start to finish. He may not have had an upbringing that lends himself naturally to the blues, but it matters not; Ry Cooder didn't exactly struggle as a kid, yet has proven one of America's most credible roots archivists.