Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taj Mahal
is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th
century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades
ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to
include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa,
the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more.
What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over
the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the
resulting global perspective is reflected in his music today.
Born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in Harlem on May 17,
1942, Taj grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father was a jazz pianist,
composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother was a schoolteacher
and gospel singer from South Carolina. Both parents encouraged their children
to take pride in their diverse ethnic and cultural roots. His father had an
extensive record collection and a shortwave radio that brought sounds from near
and far into the home. His parents also started him on classical piano lessons,
but after only two weeks, young Henry already had other plans about what and
how he wanted to play.
In addition to piano, the young musician learned to
play the clarinet, trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered
his stepfather’s guitar and became serious about it in his teens when a
guitarist from North Carolina moved in next door and taught him the various
styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and
other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.
Springfield in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals,
not just from around the U.S. but from all over the globe. “We spoke several
dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean, African – and we heard dialects
from eastern and western Europe,” Taj recalls. In addition, musicians from the
Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited the Fredericks home,
and Taj became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of the various
forms of music he was hearing, the path they took to reach their current form,
and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into the
study of older forms of African-American music, which the record companies of
the day largely ignored.
Henry studied agriculture at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst in the early 1960s. Inspired by a dream, he adopted
the musical alias of Taj Mahal and formed the popular U. Mass party band, the
Elektras. After graduating, he headed west in 1964 to Los Angeles, where he
formed the Rising Sons, a six-piece outfit that included guitarist Ry Cooder.
The band opened for numerous high-profile touring artists of the ‘60s,
including Otis Redding, the Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas. Around
this same time, Taj also mingled with various blues legends, including Howlin’
Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sleepy John
Estes.
This diversity of musical experience served as the
bedrock for Taj’s first three recordings: Taj
Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues
(1968) and Giant Step (1969). Drawing
on all the sounds and styles he’d absorbed as a child and a young adult, these
early albums showed signs of the musical exploration that would be Taj’s
hallmark over the years to come.
In the 1970s, Taj carved out a unique musical niche
with a string of adventurous recordings, including Happy To be Just Like I Am (1971), Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff (1972), the
GRAMMY®-nominated soundtrack to the movie Sounder
(1973), Mo’ Roots (1974), Music Fuh Ya (Music Para Tu) (1977) and Evolution (The Most Recent (1978).
Taj’s recorded output slowed somewhat during the 1980s
as he toured relentlessly and immersed himself in the music and culture of his
new home in Hawaii. Still, that decade saw the well-received release of Taj in 1987, as well as the first three
of his celebrated children’s albums on the Music For Little People label.
He returned to a full recording and touring schedule
in the 1990s, including such projects as the musical scores for the Langston
Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone
(1991) and the movie Zebrahead
(1992). Later in the decade, Taj released a series of recordings with the
Phantom Blues Band, including Dancing the
Blues (1993), Phantom Blues
(1996), and the two GRAMMY® winners, Señor
Blues (1997) and the live Shoutin’ in
Key (2000). Overall, he has been nominated for nine GRAMMY® Awards.
During this same period, Taj continued to expand his
multicultural horizons by joining Indian classical musicians on Mumtaz Mahal in 1995, and recording Sacred Island, a blend of Hawaiian music
and blues, with the Hula Blues Band in 1998. Kulanjan, released in 1999, was a collaborative project with Malian
kora player Toumani Diabate (the kora is a 21-string west African harp). He recorded
a second album with the Hula Blues Band, Hanapepe
Dream, in 2003. Zanzibar, a
European release, followed in 2005.
In 2008, Taj celebrated the 40th
anniversary of his rich and varied recording career with the Heads Up
International release of Maestro, a
mix of original material, chestnuts borrowed from vintage sources and newcomers
alike and including performances by Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Angelique Kidjo,
Los Lobos, Ziggy Marley and others – many of whom have been directly influenced
by Taj’s music and guidance.
Taj’s most recent release is a 15 cd deluxe box set
titled Taj Mahal – The Complete Columbia
Albums Collection (February 2013 via Columbia/Legacy). It includes every album from his self-titled
debut of 1968 through 1976’s Satisfied ’N Tickled Too, plus landmark archival
compilations Rising Sons
Featuring Taj Mahal And Ry Cooder and 2012’s two-cd set of previously unreleased
material,
The Hidden
Treasures of Taj Mahal 1969-1973.
Taj continues to tour internationally, doing as many
as 150 shows per year throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and
beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment