Taj Mahal (musician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taj Mahal ( Vienna , 2007)

Taj Mahal (actually Henry St. Clair Fredericks * 17th May 1942 in New York ) is an American Blues - musician .

life and work

Taj Mahal ( Niederstetten , 2007)

His father was a jazz - pianist , composer and arranger of Jamaican descent, his mother was a school teacher in South Carolina , which also Gospel singing.

In the early 1960s he studied agriculture and livestock farming at the University of Massachusetts . There he founded Taj Mahal & The Elektras . His stage name Taj Mahal is inspired by a dream.

Taj graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles . He founded the group Rising Sons there in 1966 with Ry Cooder . After Columbia Records signed the band, a single was released and an album was also recorded, but this was not marketed by Columbia until 1992. Disappointed with the mixed reactions to his music, Taj left the band and began performing alone. His 1968 album Taj Mahal was released again by Columbia and sold well. The success let him produce another long-playing record Natch'l Blues in the same year . Since the double album Giant Step in 1969, there is no longer any doubt about the importance that Taj Mahal has for the American blues. The song of the same name has cult status with its concert audience to this day .

In 1971 Taj Mahal played with a band in which four tubas could be heard at the same time. With this band, in which Howard Johnson had recruited the winds, he performed several times at the Fillmore East . A live recording was released on LP under the title "The Real Thing".

In 1979 he performed at Madison Square Garden in New York at the Woodstock Festival tenth anniversary concert .

Taj Mahal won two Grammy awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album, the first in 1997 for Señor Blues and 2000 for Shoutin 'in Key . He has contributed music to films several times, including Sounder and Blues Brothers 2000 . In the latter he was also involved in person. He had other short film appearances in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey , in The Song Catcher , in Feel Like Going Home ( Martin Scorsese ) and in Six Days Seven Nights (1998). In 2009 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame .

Since visiting West Africa in 1979, the Taj Mahal has been convinced that it descends from the Griot clan of the Kouyaté and was spontaneously baptized in Senegal under the name Dadi Kouyate. With a member of this clan, the Ngoni player Bassekou Kouyaté , he later worked on the Kulanjan record (also with Toumani Diabaté ).

Taj Mahal (Vienna, 2007)
Taj Mahal (Glastonbury 2005)

To mark his 40th stage anniversary, the album Maestro was released in autumn 2008 , on which Ben Harper, Ziggy Marley , Jack Johnson , Angélique Kidjo and Los Lobos are among the guest musicians.

Taj Mahal is the brother of Carole Fredericks , who was best known in France through her work with Jean-Jacques Goldman and Michael Jones .

In 2018 he got another Grammy together with Keb 'Mo' for the joint album TajMo .

Bands that Taj Mahal played with

  • The Taj Mahal Trio

Taj Mahal: vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards - Kester Smith: drums - Bill Rich: bass

  • The International Rhythm Band

Taj Mahal: vocals, guitar, keyboards - Kester Smith: drums - Bill Rich: bass - Rudy Costa - Briant “Tee” Parker - Robert Greenidge

  • The Hula Blues Band

Taj Mahal: vocals, acoustic and electric guitar - Pancho Graham: acoustic bass, background vocals - Kester Smith: drums - Pat Crocket: ukulele, background vocals - Michael Barretto: baritone ukulele, background vocals - Wayne Jacintho: tenor ukulele, background vocals - Fred Lunt : Hawaiian steel guitar - Rudy Costa: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, kalimba , piccolo, clarinet, background vocals

  • The Phantom Blues Band

style

In the music of the Taj Mahal different styles come together : Blues , Reggae , Cajun , Gospel , Bluegrass , South Pacific, African and Caribbean traditions . He respects the origins of these musical forms, although he unmistakably adds his own elements. Taj is also proficient in a number of different musical instruments : guitar, banjo, piano and harmonica.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1968 The Natch'l Blues - US160 (14 weeks)
US
1969 Giant Step / De Ole Folks at Home - US85 (9 weeks)
US
1971 Happy Just to Be Like I Am - US181 (6 weeks)
US
The real thing - US84 (13 weeks)
US
Live album
1972 Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff - US177 (4 weeks)
US
1973 Oooh So Good 'n Blues - US190 (5 weeks)
US
1974 Mo 'roots - US165 (6 weeks)
US
1975 Music Keeps Me Together - US155 (7 weeks)
US
1977 Music Fuh Ya '(Musica para tu) - US134 (8 weeks)
US
1996 Phantom Blues UK82 (1 week)
UK 		-
2017 TajMo - US80 (1 week)
US
with keb 'mo'

More albums

  • Taj Mahal (1968)
  • Evolution (1978)
  • Take a Giant Step (1983)
  • Taj (1986)
  • Like Never Before (1991)
  • Dancing the Blues (1994)
  • An Evening of Acoustic Music (1994)
  • Mumtaz Mahal (1995) with VM Bhatt and N. Ravikiran
  • Señor Blues (1997) - Grammy 1998 “Best Contemporary Blues Album”
  • Sacred Island - Taj Mahal and The Hula Blues Band (1998)
  • Kulanjan (1999) with Toumani Diabaté
  • Shoutin 'in Key (2000) - Grammy 2001 "Best Contemporary Blues Album"
  • Hanapepe Dream (2001)
  • Live Catch (2004)
  • Music Makers with Taj Mahal ( Music Maker , 2004)
  • Etta Baker with Taj Mahal (Music Maker, 2004)
  • Mkutano (2005) with Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar
  • Maestro (2008)

Video albums

Filmography

  • in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus from 1968 he made an appearance with Ain't That A Lot Of Love
  • in Blues Brothers 2000 he contributes a piece of music that consists only of his voice and clapping of hands (John The Revelator) .
  • In Six Days, Seven Nights (1998) the song The Calypsonians is played live at a bar.

Web links

Commons : Taj Mahal  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, March 30, 2018, Taj Mahal, The Real Thing '(1971), accessed March 30, 2018
  2. ↑ Chart sources: UK US
personal data
SURNAME Taj Mahal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henry St. Clair Fredericks (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , United States