Taj Mahal (musician)

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician, a singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments.[1] He often incorporates elements of world music into his works and has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, and the South Pacific.[2]

Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal in 2005
Born
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks

(1942-05-17) May 17, 1942
Harlem, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)Inshirah Geter 1976-Present
Children6
RelativesCarole Fredericks (sister)
Musical career
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • harmonica
  • piano
Years active1964–present
Labels
Associated acts
  • The Rising Sons
  • Keb' Mo'
  • The Hula Blues Band
WebsiteTajblues.com

Early life

Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York, Mahal grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was raised in a musical environment; his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father was an Afro-Caribbean 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.[3] 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.[4] His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his Caribbean and African ancestry through their stories.[5]

Taj Mahal at the Museumsquartier in Vienna (Jazz-Fest Wien) in 2007

Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of other musicians from the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., was called "The Genius" by Ella Fitzgerald before starting his family.[6] 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.[7] 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.[6]

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 who played acoustic blues guitar.[7] 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.[6]

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."[8] Mahal believes in growing one's own food, saying, "You have a whole generation of kids who think 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.[8]

Taj Mahal, his stage name, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959[9] or 1961[6]—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 U.S. West Coast, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.[6]

Taj Mahal married Inshirah Geter on January 23, 1976 and together they have six children. His daughter Deva Mahal appeared on one episode of Dating Around.[10]

Career
Taj Mahal performing in 1971 (Millard Agency photo)

In 1964 he moved to Santa Monica, California, and formed Rising Sons with fellow blues rock 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 may have hampered their commercial viability.[11] However, Rising Sons bassist Gary Marker later recalled the band's members had come to a creative impasse and were unable to reconcile their musical and personal differences even with the guidance of veteran producer Terry Melcher.[12] They recorded enough songs for a full length album, but only released a single and the band soon broke up. Legacy Records did release The Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder in 1992 with material from that period. During this time Mahal was also working with other musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Muddy Waters.[7]

Mahal stayed with Columbia for his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal and The Natch'l Blues in 1968, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home with Kiowa session musician Jesse Ed Davis from Oklahoma, who played guitar and piano in 1969.[13] During this time he and Cooder worked with the Rolling Stones, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career.[14] In 1968, he performed in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia 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 acted in and wrote the film score for the movie Sounder, which starred Cicely Tyson.[14] He reprised his role and returned as composer in the sequel, Part 2, Sounder.[15]

In 1976 Mahal left Columbia 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., he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal and disco music.

Taj Mahal at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy, in 2005

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.[16] He maintained a low public profile in Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision.[14] This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records during this time.

In the 1990s Mahal became deeply involved in supporting the nonprofit Music Maker Relief Foundation.[17][18] As of 2019, he was still on the Foundation's advisory board.[19]

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.[14]

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.[20] 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 afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. The Paul Heck produced album was widely acclaimed, and all proceeds from the record were donated to AIDS charities.

Taj Mahal contributed to Olmecha Supreme's 2006 album 'hedfoneresonance'.[21] The Wellington-based group led by Mahal's son Imon Starr (Ahmen Mahal) also featured Deva Mahal on vocals.[22]

Mahal partnered up with Keb' Mo' to release a joint album TajMo on May 5, 2017.[23] The album has some guest appearances by Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, Sheila E., and Lizz Wright, and has six original compositions and five covers, from artists and bands like John Mayer and The Who.[24]

In 2013, Mahal appeared in the documentary film 'The Byrd Who Flew Alone', produced by Four Suns Productions. The film was about Gene Clark, one of the original Byrds, who was a friend of Mahal for many years.[25]

In June 2017, Mahal appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, recording Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere"[26] on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[27] Mahal appeared throughout the accompanying documentary series American Epic, commenting on the 1920s rural recording artists who had a profound influence on American music and on him personally.[28]

Musical style
Taj Mahal performing at the 1997 North Sea Jazz Festival

Mahal leads with his thumb 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."[7] 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."[29] Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 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,[13] jazz, zydeco, R&B, gospel music, and the country blues—each of which having "served as the foundation of his unique sound."[3] 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."[13] Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has "an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry."[1]

Taj Mahal in Niederstetten, Germany, June 2007

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.[4] He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali name, to drive this point home.[30] 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.[4]

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."[5]

Mahal has been 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. ...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."[31]

Awards

Taj Mahal has received three Grammy Awards (ten nominations) over his career.[1]

  • 1997 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues[20]
  • 2000 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Shoutin' in Key[20]
  • 2006 (Blues Music Awards) Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal[32]
  • 2008 (Grammy Nomination) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Maestro[20]
  • 2018 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for TajMo[33]

On February 8, 2006 Taj Mahal was designated the official Blues Artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.[34]

In March 2006, Taj Mahal, along with his sister, the late Carole Fredericks, received the Foreign Language Advocacy Award from the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in recognition of their commitment to shine a spotlight on the vast potential of music to foster genuine intercultural communication.[35]

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 online.[36]

In 2014, Taj Mahal received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement award.

Discography

Albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Various artists featuring Taj Mahal

Filmography

Live DVDs

  • 2002 – Live at Ronnie Scott's 1988
  • 2006 – Taj Mahal/Phantom Blues Band Live at St. Lucia
  • 2011 – Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center – with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton, playing on "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and "Corrine, Corrina"

Movies

TV Shows

  • 1977 - Saturday Night Live: Episode 048 Performer: Musical Guest
  • 1985 - Theme song from Star Wars: Ewoks
  • 1992 – New WKRP in Cincinnati – Moss Dies as himself
  • 1999 – Party of Five – Fillmore Street as himself
  • 2003 – Arthur – Big Horns George as himself
  • 2004 – Theme song from Peep and the Big Wide World

Notes
  1. Evans, et al., xii.
  2. Komara, 951.
  3. DiCaire, 9
  4. Tipaldi, 179–185
  5. "Deep African roots help shape Taj Mahal's blues | Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly". Straight.com. April 13, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  6. White, Billboard
  7. Madsen, 60–73
  8. George-Warren, et al., 129
  9. Strong, 493–494
  10. "The Daughter of Grammy Winner Taj Mahal Appears on Season 2 of 'Dating Around'". Distractify. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  11. Weissman, 160
  12. See liner notes for Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder (recorded 1965–1966, CD released 1992, Columbia/Legacy CK-52828)
  13. Buckley, et al., 1050
  14. Vickers, album insert
  15. Eder, Richard (October 14, 1976). "Film: A Sequel:'Sounder Part 2' Is Gloomy and Full of Sentimentality". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  16. "Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues Band". Brudda.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
  17. "Tim Duffy: Music Maker Relief Foundation". Swampland. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  18. "Comics - Music Maker Relief Foundation". Music Maker Relief Foundation. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  19. "Board Members". Music Maker Relief Foundation. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  21. Supreme, Olmecha. "hedfoneresonance". Bandcamp.com. Bandcamp. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  22. "Olmecha Supreme". MusicNet.co.nz. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  23. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "TajMo - Taj Mahal / Keb' Mo'". AllMusic. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  24. Cunningham, Scott (March 15, 2017). "TajMo: Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' team up for new album". Oregon Music News. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  25. foursunsproductions.com
  26. "Taj Mahal - High Water Everywhere, The Sessions, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  27. "The Performers in 'The American Epic Sessions'". WTTW Chicago Public Media - Television and Interactive. June 6, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  28. ""The influence of Charley Patton can not be understated ...", Part 2: Blood and Soil, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  29. Weissman, 117
  30. Elam & Jackson, 301–302
  31. Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  32. Archived February 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  33. "Taj Mahal". Grammy.com. November 28, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  34. "Session Laws: Chapter 19 of the Acts of 2006". Mass.gov. February 8, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  35. "The James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award". Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  36. "Wofford College - Commencement 2011". Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  37. Richie Unterberger (January 8, 2002). "Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues - Jools Holland | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
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References
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