The "Blues Philosopher"

     On May 17, 1942 in Harlem, New York, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks was born.   Raised in a musical environment, his mother was the member of a local gospel choir and his father was a West Indian jazz arranger and piano player.  Mahal grew up in Springfield, MA.  His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to music from around the world.   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.  His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his West Indian and African ancestry through their stories.      
     Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed, Big Mama Thornton, Holing' Wolf, 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.
     His stage name, Taj Mahal, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it sometime between 1959 or 1961, around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts.  Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology 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, jazz, zydeco, rhythm and blues, gospel music, and the country blues—each of which having "served as the foundation of his unique sound.  "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.
     A belief 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.  He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali name, to drive this point home.  Speaking of the experience and demonstrating the breadth of his eclecticism, he has said:
     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. Throughout his career, Mahal has performed his brand of blues (an African American artform) for a predominantly white audience. This has been a disappointment at times for Mahal, who recognizes there is a general lack of interest in blues music among many African Americans today. He has drawn a parallel comparison between the blues and rap music in that they both were initially black forms of music that have come to be assimilated into the mainstream of society.  Mahal also believes that some people may think the blues are about wallowing in negativity and despair, a position he disagrees with.

     In 1976 Mahal left Columbia Records 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. Records he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal and disco music. Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981 and soon formed The Hula Blues Band.  This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records during this time. 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.  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.
      Two-time GRAMMY winner and legendary composer and multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in May, 2009, in Memphis, Tn.