American blues musician Taj Mahal, was born Henry Fredericks in New York in 1942. His music is a mix of blues, Caribbean styles, bluegrass and the music of Hawaii, where he lived for a number of years.
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Format: Audio CD
One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Henry St. Clair Fredericks played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional blues.
His self-titled debut album was recorded in August 1967, and came out just as several established blues stars ventured into psychedelia and rock n' roll at the insistence of their record companies.
But not Taj Mahal. These arrangements may be updated when compared to what Robert Johnson or Willie McTell did thirty-five years earlier, but it's still the blues, genuine, mostly acoustic blues, dominated by harp and howling slide guitar.
These lean, stripped-down arrangements were alien to most record producers at the time, and they are part of the reason why this album holds up so well.
The best of these eight songs count among the best, catchiest, grooviest blues I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot!
Taj Mahal vocals are powerful and confident, he has a great sense of timing and melody, and he is backed by a magnificent band which includes lead guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and the multi-talented Ry Cooder.
(A facsimile of the original LP artwork is included, giving their names as ",Jessie Edwin Davis", and ",Ryland Cooder",. Taj Mahal calls his band ",a son of a Texas sharecropper, a Hungarian Jew, a wild-eyed Irishman, and a crazy Swamp Spade!",)
Taj Mahal's hard-hitting renditions of ",Dust My Broom",, ",Leaving Trunk", and ",Statesboro Blues", are nothing short of magnificent, powerful, strongly rhythmic songs, perfectly arranged. And the nine-minute version of Son House's ",Walkin' Blues",, which sees Taj Mahal playing both harp and rough, gruff slide guitar, is simply awesome. Read more &rsaquo,
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