Taj Mahal
Langue disponible : anglaisSince releasing his self-titled album for Columbia in 1968, Taj Mahal has been one of the world's most prominent figures in revitalizing, preserving, and innovating on traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal broadened his approach on 1972's World Music, taking a musicologist's interest in folk and roots musics from around the world, including calypso and reggae, Bahamian, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, and various Pacific and West African approaches on dozens of albums. That said, he has never strayed far from his country-blues foundation: check 1988's Shake Sugaree. During the '90s a cadre of young bluesmen, Corey Harris and Guy Davis among them, began following his lead, while 1996's Phantom Blues and 1997's Senor Blues returned him to the charts. 2008's Maestro wed deep blues to funk and R&B and 2017's TajMo' was a collaboration with Keb Mo'. In 2022, Mahal teamed with old friend and former bandmate Ry Cooder for the tribute offering Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent; his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts when he was quite young, and while growing up he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues -- both acoustic and electric -- and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahal (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & the Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed the Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992. Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, Natch'l Blues. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set Giant Step followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's Happy Just to Be Like I Am heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms, and the following year's double-live set, The Real Thing, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, Mo' Roots. Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, when he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film Brothers). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with Taj, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with Shake Sugaree. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991. The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, Like Never Before. Follow-ups, such as Dancing the Blues (1993) and Phantom Blues (1996), drifted into more rock-, pop-, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for Señor Blues. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, Mumtaz Mahal teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's Sacred Island was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band as he explored Hawaiian music in greater depth, and 1999's Kulanjan was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Maestro appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabaté, Angélique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. A holiday album with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Talkin' Christmas, appeared in time for the season in 2014. In 2017, Mahal teamed with Keb' Mo' to spotlight the good-time side of the blues on TajMo. The pair toured the world and took home the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. In 2022, Mahal re-teamed with teenage friend Ry Cooder. The pair had played in the blues-rock band Rising Sons in the mid-'60s. Further, Cooder played rhythm guitar (next to Jesse Ed Davis' lead) on Mahal's self-titled 1968 debut album. The pair -- with Cooder's son Joachim on bass and percussion -- recorded Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in tribute to the wandering Piedmont blues masters.
© Steve Huey & Thom Jurek /TiVo Lire plus
Since releasing his self-titled album for Columbia in 1968, Taj Mahal has been one of the world's most prominent figures in revitalizing, preserving, and innovating on traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal broadened his approach on 1972's World Music, taking a musicologist's interest in folk and roots musics from around the world, including calypso and reggae, Bahamian, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, and various Pacific and West African approaches on dozens of albums. That said, he has never strayed far from his country-blues foundation: check 1988's Shake Sugaree. During the '90s a cadre of young bluesmen, Corey Harris and Guy Davis among them, began following his lead, while 1996's Phantom Blues and 1997's Senor Blues returned him to the charts. 2008's Maestro wed deep blues to funk and R&B and 2017's TajMo' was a collaboration with Keb Mo'. In 2022, Mahal teamed with old friend and former bandmate Ry Cooder for the tribute offering Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent; his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts when he was quite young, and while growing up he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues -- both acoustic and electric -- and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahal (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & the Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed the Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992.
Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, Natch'l Blues. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set Giant Step followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's Happy Just to Be Like I Am heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms, and the following year's double-live set, The Real Thing, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, Mo' Roots.
Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, when he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film Brothers). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with Taj, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with Shake Sugaree. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991.
The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, Like Never Before. Follow-ups, such as Dancing the Blues (1993) and Phantom Blues (1996), drifted into more rock-, pop-, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for Señor Blues. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, Mumtaz Mahal teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's Sacred Island was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band as he explored Hawaiian music in greater depth, and 1999's Kulanjan was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Maestro appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabaté, Angélique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. A holiday album with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Talkin' Christmas, appeared in time for the season in 2014. In 2017, Mahal teamed with Keb' Mo' to spotlight the good-time side of the blues on TajMo. The pair toured the world and took home the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
In 2022, Mahal re-teamed with teenage friend Ry Cooder. The pair had played in the blues-rock band Rising Sons in the mid-'60s. Further, Cooder played rhythm guitar (next to Jesse Ed Davis' lead) on Mahal's self-titled 1968 debut album. The pair -- with Cooder's son Joachim on bass and percussion -- recorded Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in tribute to the wandering Piedmont blues masters.
© Steve Huey & Thom Jurek /TiVo
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GET ON BOARD
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Nonesuch le 22 avr. 2022
Entre ces deux monuments de la musique américaine, les retrouvailles sont vertigineuses : Taj Mahal et Ry Cooder ont joué dans le même groupe, les éph ...
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
TajMo
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Concord Records le 5 mai 2017
Si une décennie sépare Henry Saint Clair Fredericks alias Taj Mahal de Kevin Roosevelt Moore alias Keb' Mo', le blues est bien le fil conducteur commu ...
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Rock - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 1 janv. 1968
Taj Mahal's debut album was a startling statement in its time and has held up remarkably well. Recorded in August of 1967, it was as hard and exciting ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Giant Steps/De Old Folks At Home
Taj Mahal
Pop - Paru chez Columbia le 1 janv. 1969
In less than 24 months, Taj Mahal (guitars/vocals/banjo/harmonica) had issued the equivalent of four respective long-players. The electric Giant Step ...
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Natch'l Blues
Taj Mahal
Rock - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 23 déc. 1968
Taj Mahal's second album, recorded in the spring and fall of 1968, opens with more stripped-down Delta-style blues in the manner of his debut, but add ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Essential Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Reggae - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 19 mai 2003
The Essential Taj Mahal pulls together the bluesman's Columbia, Warner, Gramavision Private Music, and Hannibal labels' recordings, making it the firs ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Señor Blues
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Private Music le 9 juin 1997
Señor Blues is one of Taj Mahal's best latter-day albums, a rollicking journey through classic blues styles performed with contemporary energy and fla ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dancing The Blues
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Private Music le 14 sept. 1993
Taj Mahal has always been a more inclusive, eclectic musician than even some admirers understand; his work was never simply or totally blues, even tho ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An Evening Of Acoustic Music
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Tradition & Moderne le 1 oct. 1994
If you've ever caught Taj live solo, this recording, cut during an appearance in Germany, is what you've been waiting for. His sublime performances of ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Queen Bee Live (Live)
Taj Mahal
R&B - Paru chez Concert Archive - Delta - Special Markets le 27 sept. 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kulanjan
Taj Mahal
Jazz - Paru chez Chrysalis Records le 2 août 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In Progress & In Motion (1965-1998)
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 21 sept. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live From Kauai (Live)
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Kuleana Music le 16 oct. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Real Thing (Live)
Taj Mahal
Rock - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 1 janv. 1971
Taj Mahal followed up Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home (1969) with another double-LP concert platter whose title pretty much sums up the contents. The ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 1 janv. 1972
The title Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff certainly sums up the album quite well -- that's exactly what Taj Mahal has been doing for several ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Labor of Love
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Music Maker Recordings le 16 déc. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best Of Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Columbia - Legacy le 5 déc. 1990
Columbia/Legacy's 2000 collection The Best of Taj Mahal is a first-rate overview of Taj Mahal's classic late-'60s/early-'70s work for Columbia. Spanni ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giant Step
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Columbia le 1 janv. 1969
In less than 24 months, Taj Mahal (guitars/vocals/banjo/harmonica) had issued the equivalent of four respective long-players. The electric Giant Step ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues With A Feeling
Taj Mahal
Blues - Paru chez Private Music - BMG Heritage le 1 sept. 2003
Throughout his career, Taj Mahal has always been considered a bluesman, which is true enough, since the basis for everything he does has been the coun ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo