taj mahal

Taj Mahal dug deep into his trunk of blues to come up with this farm fresh mix of electrified roots and rock. Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. was the son of a Caribbean jazz pianist and composer and a gospel singing schoolteacher from South Carolina. He grew up working on a dairy farm in Massachusetts and studied animal husbandry and veterinary science before deciding to pursue a musical career. He was inspired to take on the pseudonym of Taj Mahal by a dream:   "Dreams over a period of time. That’s the most asked question. What really blows my mind is that there’s a band called The Case Of An Elephant. Okay. I never hear anybody else asking about that. I think what it is is that it’s unique. It just seemed so far ahead of what everybody was doing. All these things are in the world, all you have to do is be a little inquisitive and there they go - they’re in your life before you know it. This was on the way into college; I was nineteen or something like that. But I was affected at least ten or fifteen years earlier by Gandhi in the late Forties. Gandhi was very important. It was very interesting how he stood out in terms of the world as an individual who seriously held back an empire, questioning what they were doing... But that led onto other things about the culture, and as a kid coming through I’m looking... ‘Oh, there’s the great pyramids, the great wall of China, the seven wonders of the world...’ Who knows. All of that came around in an interesting mix and there we are. I said, ‘That will be an interesting name.’ But it’s so funny, because in my mind it was something that was obvious that people would know about - so many people are really - particularly American - are like... [pulls a confused face]. It’s only recently they started really opening up and being able to see what’s going on."

He moved to California and started a group called Rising Sons with Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, leading to a deal with Columbia Records and released only one single, 'Candy Man'. Mahal worked with blues legends like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins and Sleepy John Estes before recording his eponymous debut on Columbia in 1968. Produced by Bob Irwin and David Rubinson, the sessions featured Taj Mahal on guitar, arrangements, harp, slide guitar, and vocals; Ry Cooder on rhythm guitar and mandolin; Jesse Ed Davis ono lead guitar; James Thomas on bass; and Sanford Konikoff on drums.   The powerful mix of traditional roots music with electrified rock and roll established Mahal as a visionary missionary of the blues. 

Mahal reflects on his musical background:    "I was born in Harlem. I grew up in New England. My mother was American and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music. I think because my dad and my mother were both very positive about us culturally as young people growing up, we didn’t grow up with the same kind of pressure on top of us to not represent culturally and were culturally diverse. The music came from everywhere, but there was some really deep, resounding styles and types that seemed to be traditional as well as connected from our recent past into our ancient past. So that was always my interest once I got started; ‘Well, how did it get to be sounding like this and come from there? What were the elements that shaped it in the present time?’ That’s pretty much what my search has really been about. Not to go somewhere and bring something back as much as show how this particular music is connected to that, which is connected to this, which is connected to that. And also to give the blues a world view from its own perspective, not from interested parties saying ‘This music is connected to that’; it’s just mostly from inside the culture. It says these are all the relatives that are connected. It connects all the way to Mother Africa, it’s got Celtic roots because of that group of people being in the west and in particular the United States with the blues, and having some influence on the very powerful African statement. So now, the present day music that we listen to has the stamp of this amalgamation that’s boiled itself down to this deep feeling that people communicate between one another."









http://www.tajblues.com/










"Everybody's Got to Change Sometime" 



"Dust My Broom"




"Diving Duck Blues" 





"Checkin' Up on My Baby"




"The Celebrated Walkin' Blues"









Taj Mahal
full album




Side A
1.  "Leaving Trunk" (Sleepy John Estes) – 4:51
2.  "Statesboro Blues" (Blind Willie McTell) – 2:59
3.  "Checkin' Up on My Baby" (Sonny Boy Williamson) – 4:55
4.  "Everybody's Got to Change Sometime" (Estes) – 2:57
Side B
5.  "EZ Rider" (Taj Mahal) – 3:04
6.  "Dust My Broom" (Robert Johnson) – 2:39
7.  "Diving Duck Blues" (Estes) – 2:42
8.  "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues" (Traditional) – 8:52