Feature Story november
2002
Taj Mahal Trio
11/16 @ Bryan Hall/WSU, Pullman, 8pm; 11/17 @ Cordiner Hall/Whitman
College, Walla Walla, 7pm; 11/19 @ Metropolitan Performing Arts Center,
Spokane, 8pm; 11/20 @ Panida Theatre, Sand Point, ID; 11/26 thru 12/1
(excluding 11/28) @ Jazz Alley, Seattle (see cal for times).
photo: tom hunnewell
By Mark Hoffman
Taj Mahal's annual Thanksgiving-week pilgrimmage to
Jazz Alley has turned into one of the most highly satisfying and widely
anticipated blues events in Seattle year after year. Hearing and seeing
a great roots musician like Taj up close is always a treat, and we're
lucky to have him back here for a whole week every year. Chalk it
up to the fact that Taj has family locally, so his annual Thanksgiving
gig in Seattle is a reunion of sorts for him. This year he is joined
by his trio, as well.
Taj is, of course, one of the greatest roots musicians of our times.
Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, the son of a jazz pianist/arranger/composer
and a gospel-singing school teacher, Taj learned blues in person from
masters such as John Hurt, Gary Davis, Son House, Elizabeth Cotton,
and Howlin' Wolf. But Taj is more than a bluesman. He's also played
and sung R&B, gospel, jazz, zydeco, country, Hawaiian, Carribean
and reggae, Latin, and even children's music. He's learned to play
more than 20 instruments, including various guitars, piano, and harmonica,
and his remarkable voice ranges from gruff and gravelly to smooth
and sultry. Besides being a great singer in his own right, he's one
of the best blues impressionists ever. For example, he does an uncanny
imitation of Howlin' Wolf-the best I've ever heard in my years of
working on the first biography of Wolf.
Along the way Taj has been a farmer (with a college degree in agriculture
and animal husbandry), a father to 12 or so children, a philosopher
who speaks five languages fluently, a fisherman, a film actor and
composer, a bon vivant and raconteur, and a world-class cook. A multiple
Grammy and Handy Award winner, he's recorded with everyone from Ry
Cooder (a member of Taj's first electric band), the Rolling Stones,
Bonnie Raitt, and Eric Clapton to the latest legends from Africa and
Asia. The man has literally been from here to Timbuktu and back-in
most cases, long before anyone else got there. A key figure in revitalizing
and preserving traditional acoustic blues since the 1960s, he's blazing
new trails in roots music, and his long success has helped encourage
a whole pack of talented younger bluesmen such as acoustic revivalists
Corey Harris, Guy Davis, and Eric Bibb, and eclectic acoustic/electric
players Alvin "Youngblood" Hart and Keb' Mo'. Just like
his stage name, Taj Mahal is an international cultural monument, and
his contribution to blues is truly monumental.
2002