Taj Mahal

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Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who goes by the stage name Taj Mahal, is a singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo, and other musical instruments.

He often incorporates elements of world music into his performances, and he has helped to reframe the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50 years by using sounds from Africa, Africa, and the South Pacific.

Early life

Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. was born in Harlem, New York City, on May 17, 1942. He grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and pianist. His family owned a shortwave radio that received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him to world music at an early age. He noticed the drastic differences between his day's popular music and the music that was played in his house early in childhood. He became interested in jazz, as well 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 their Caribbean and African roots, as shown by their stories.

Since his father was a guitarist, he would have regularly hosted other artists from around the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States. Ella Fitzgerald referred to his father as "the Genius" before he married his family. Henry Jr., an early boy, developed an interest in African music, which he pursued avidly as a young man. His parents encouraged him to pursue music by teaching classical piano lessons. He also studied clarinet, trombone, and harmonica.

When Henry Jr. was eleven years old, he was killed in an accident at his building company and was crushed by a tractor when it turned over. It was a traumatic experience for the boy. Mahal's mother remarried later in life. Henry Jr.'s stepfather played acoustic blues guitar, which he started using at age 13 or 14 in North Carolina, receiving his first lessons from a new neighbor of his own age who played acoustic blues guitar. Lynwood Perry, the nephew of the famous bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, was named after him. Henry Jr. was a member of a doo-wop group in high school.

He had considered farming over music for a long time. At age 16, he started on a dairy farm in Palmer, Massachusetts, not far from Springfield. He had been a farm foreman by 1926. "I milked anywhere between thirty-five and seventy cows a day." I clipped udders. I grew corn. I grew redtop clover in Tennessee. "Alpha is a product of the Alfalfa Group" "You have a whole generation of kids who think everything comes out of a box and a can, and they don't know how to grow most of your food," Mahal says. Mahal appears at Farm Aid concerts regularly due to his personal support for the family farm.

From dreams he had about Mahatma Gandhi, India, and social responsibility, Henry chose Taj Mahal for his stage name. He began using the stage name in 1959 or 1961, about the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts. Mahal opted to study music rather than farming after attending a vocational agriculture school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization, majoring in animal husbandry and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy. Taj Mahal & The Elektras, a jazz and blues band, was he played in college. He was also a member of Jessie Lee Kincaid's duo before heading to the West Coast of the United States.

Personal life

Anna de Leon was Mahal's first marriage. "She's Woman Blues" by Anna refers to her with the narrator's "Seorita de Leon, escucha mi canción." Aya de Leon, a novelist and scholar, was born as a result of her marriage. Taj Mahal married Inshirah Geter on January 23, 1976, and the couple have six children together. Deva Mahal's daughter appeared on one episode of Dating Around.

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Career

Mahal moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1964, where they formed Rising Sons with fellow blues rock guitarists Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, resulting in a contract with Columbia Records shortly after. On Mahal's first four albums, Jesse Ed Davis, a Kiowa boy from Oklahoma, joined Taj Mahal and played guitar and piano. The group was one of the first interracial bands of the period, and it may have hampered their commercial success. However, Rising Sons bassist Gary Marker later recalled that the band's members were stuck in a creative impasse and were unable to reconcile their personal and cultural differences, even with veteran producer Terry Melcher's assistance. They made enough songs for a full album, but they only had a single album before the band disbanded out. Legacy Records also had The Rising Sons of Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder appear on the CD in 1992, as well as other items from that period. Mahal was also working with others such as Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Muddy Waters during this period.

Mahal stayed with Columbia for his solo career, debuting the self-titled Taj Mahal and The Natch'l Blues in 1968. On Side 2 of Columbia/CBS sampler album "The Rock Machine Turns You On," his song "Statesboro Blues" was included, providing a major boost to his career right away. Jesse Ed Davis, a session musician, appeared at Giant Step/Dead Folks at Home in 1969. He and Cooder appeared with the Rolling Stones during their time together, with whom he appeared at various times in his career. He appeared in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968. Columbia's total number of twelve albums from the late 1960s to the 1970s. His 1970s work was particularly important, because West Indian and Caribbean music, jazz, and reggae were all incorporated into the mix. In 1972, he performed in and wrote the film score for the film Sounder, which starred Cicely Tyson. In the sequel, Part 2, Sounder, he reprised his role as composer and returned as composer.

Mahal left Columbia and signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1976, releasing three albums with them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers; the album bore the same name. He had trouble finding another record deal after being with Warner Bros., this being the heyday of heavy metal and disco music.

Stalled in his work, he migrated to Kauai, Hawaii, in 1981, and soon formed the Hula Blues Band. The band soon began playing regularly and touring, with a group of guys getting together for fishing and a good time. He maintained a low public profile in Hawaii for the majority of the 1980s before naming Taj in 1988 for Gramavision. This was a comeback of sorts for him, with him appearing on both Gramavision and Hannibal Records at the same time.

Mahal became involved in the non-profit Music Maker Relief Foundation in the 1990s. He was still on the Foundation's advisory board as of 2019.

He appeared on the Private Music label in the 1990s, releasing albums full of blues, pop, R&B, and rock. He performed collaborative projects with Eric Clapton and Etta James.

Mumtaz Mahal, his first American blues fusing Indian stringed instruments, was accompanied by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on Mohan veena and N. Ravikiran, a fretless lute.

Willie Nile, Willie Nile, Rob Hyman, Garth Hudson, and the Chieftains performed on the Americana album Largo based on Anton Dvok's music in 1998.

At the Grammy Awards in 1997, he received Best Contemporary Blues Album for Sethor Blues, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000. He performed the theme song to the children's television show Peep and the Big Wide World, which premiered in 2004.

Mahal appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot and Riot in honor of Nigerian afrobeat singer Fela Kuti. Paul Heck's album was highly praised, and all funds from the album were donated to AIDS charities.

Taj Mahal appeared on 'hedfoneresonance,' on Olmecha Supreme's 2006 album. Deva Mahal, a Wellington-based group led by Mahal's son Imon Starr (Ahmen Mahal), also featured Deva Mahal on vocals.

Mahal collaborated with Keb' Mo' to produce TajMo, a joint album that debuted on May 5, 2017. Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, Sheila E., and Lizz Wright have all appeared on the album, as well as six original compositions and five covers from artists and bands like John Mayer and The Who.

Mahal appeared in Byrds founding member Gene Clark's 'The Byrd Who Flew Alone', directed by Four Suns Productions in 2013. Clark and Mahal had been mates for many years.

Mahal appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, capturing Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere" on the first electrical sound recording device from the 1920s. Mahal appeared on American Epic, a accompanying documentary film about the 1920s rural recording artists who had a major influence on American music and personally, as well as Gandhi.

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