November
2003 Feature Story
Taj Mahal
11/18 @ Vert Auditorium, Pendleton, OR; 11/19 @ Capitol Theater, Olympia,
8pm; 11/21-23, 25-26, & 28-30 @ Jazz Alley, Seattle
by Mark Hoffman
Keb Mo’ described him best in the first episode of the new Year
of the Blues radio series: “Taj Mahal, one of America’s greatest
living bluesmen.” Taj returns this month with his trio for a show
in Olympia plus his annual Thanksgiving week stint at Jazz Alley, a longtime
Northwest tradition--now expanded to 8 nights. (Serious blues lovers in
Seattle mention “Taj at Thanksgiving” with a knowing smile.)
No wonder: Taj delivers night after night. Onstage he’s a whirlwind
world music tour—equally conversant in acoustic and electric blues,
jazz, gospel, rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm ‘n’ blues,
reggae, West African music, zyedeco, children’s music, and on and
on. Even Hawaiian: If you were lucky, you caught him last July with his
Hula Blues Band at the Woodland Park Zoo’s “Zoo Tunes”
series.
It’s hard to think of anyone in modern music who plays as many kinds
of music and plays them all as well as Taj. (The only other name that
comes immediately to mind is his old bandmate Ry Cooder.) Taj plays at
least 20 instruments—guitar and piano most often onstage—and
his voice ranges from gruff and gravelly to smooth and sultry. He’s
played with nearly every great blues player and serious popular musician
worth mentioning. In his spare time, he’s been a farmer, a philologist
and philosopher, a fisherman, a film actor, a filmscore composer, and
a father and grandfather with family in the Seattle area. (Hence our good
luck in seeing him here at least once a year.) He’s also recorded
more than 40 albums, many of them roots-music classics.
Taj has been very visible this year: featured in the first of Martin Scorsese’s
Year of The Blues (YOTB) films, Feel Like Going Home, which illustrates
the African connections to blues, plus the YOTB radio series, plus a special
“Best of Taj” CD called Martin Scorsese Presents Taj Mahal.
Joining Taj onstage will be two longtime bandmembers, drummer Kester “Smitty”
Smith, and woodwinds/miscellaneous stuff player Rudy Costa.
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