The Harlem born musician Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. has distinguished himself as a bluesman who has continuously extended the scope and reach of blues music.

The world knows him by his stage name, Taj Mahal. He grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and has a rather fascinating life story. You'll recognize lots of Caribbean influences in his music, no surprise as his father was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger whom Ella Fitzgerald nicknamed "The Genius." His mother was a gospel singer, and that influence is also present in his music.

Before his shift to the blues, he was into jazz and worked with some legendary musicians, such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson. It seems hard to believe, but the world almost missed the bounty of Taj Mahal's music – you see he attended an agricultural vocational school, and at the age of 16 started working on a dairy farm. By the age of 19 he was the farm's foreman: milking cows, as well as growing alfalfa and corn. He loved farming, growing his own food, and seriously considered it as a career, but thankfully in college he opted for a career in music – where he adopted the name Taj Mahal and fronted a R&B band.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to pursue a music career, the same year the British Wave swept over America. He worked with several of the surviving blues legends in the 60s – Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Buddy Guy. He formed a group with the phenomenal guitarist Ry Cooder, and they got a record deal with Columbia Records. That group didn't really go anywhere, but Taj stayed with Columbia and they released his breakout album in 1968, followed by several others. In the mid 70s he signed a three album deal with Warner Bros. Records.

In the late 70s with disco and heavy metal, Taj's career suffered. He decided to move to the island of Kauai in Hawaii where he spent most of the 80s. He had a band there with local friends and fishing buddies, and then in 1988 he released an excellent album.

Taj in Germany

I was knocked out when I saw Taj on Germany TV in the late 80s promoting his new album, he appeared on the great live music program Ohne Filter with a German pickup band. A pickup band is made up of local musicians hired by a travelling artist as a backup band, generally with only minimal time for rehearsals.

Fortunately Germany has lots of excellent players, see for yourself in this clip from that show. His Caribbean roots and Hawaiian lifestyle are on full display :-)

Shortly after this, I learned he would be playing in a small club near Karlsruhe, so my wife and I and another couple went to see him. He was NOT happy to be playing in front of a small crowd, or perhaps something else was bothering him, but unfortunately he was distant didn't engage with the audience at all. My wife was so turned off that for many years I knew better than to play Taj's music around the house.

I never held it against him, maybe he didn't feel well – who knows, but I still respect his contribution to music. That one show might have been disappointing, but his albums certainly aren't. I encourage you to check him and his music out.

So What is BLAP

That's what I use to describe the rare instances of musicians who have managed to effectively fuse elements of rap with the blues. Taj's music is real and organic. It seems he appreciates aspects of original rap movement, but feels it has been commercialized and corrupted:

"Eighty-one percent of the kids listening to rap were not black kids. Once there was a tremendous amount of money involved in it ... they totally moved it over to a material side. It just went off to a terrible direction. ...You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don't ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down.” Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

BLAP "Squat that Rabbit"

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A Bluesman's take on likin' Big Butts

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Taj Mahal the Actor

Final tip, back in 1972 Taj Mahal was commissioned to do the music for the film “Sounder” and he also appears in the film in the role of Ike. Good news, it is available on YouTube!

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Thanks for stopping by!

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Photos from Wiki Commons with effects by @roused