After some 40-odd years of making music, Taj Mahal still feels many audiences – and certainly most critics – don’t always get the big picture of what he does.
The easy summation is that Mahal is a blues artist. A Harlem native who grew up in Springfield, Mass., he moved to the West Coast in the early ‘60s and fell in with some of the most versed blues, rock and soul artists of his generation.
But the well traveled Taj also became versed in African, Afro-Carribean, Cuban and gospel roots music and plays with a variety of performance ensembles that often combine seemingly disparate elements of those styles. It’s an exotic musical world Mahal continues to work from as prepares for a return performance at the Kentucky Theatre on Tuesday.
“Planet Taj simply is not on the radar screen for most people,” Mahal said over the weekend by phone from Toronto. “They haven’t discovered this planet yet. Only a few scientists have seen it through the telescope.
“I record, I play to thousands of people at big festivals and all that. But it doesn’t even scratch the surface. Something seems to be eluding people. I’m trying to figure out what to say to excite those who don’t have any idea as to what I’m doing.”
The most immediate answer for those factions might be to forget words and simply check out one of Mahal’s performances. The majority of his concerts at the Kentucky over the past 15 years have been with a large touring group called the Phantom Blues Band, which is essentially an R&B revue ensemble. In recent years, Mahal has preferred the smaller outlines of a trio that includes longtime rhythm makers Bill Rich on bass and Kester Smith on drums.
The trio can carry the hearty blues sway of Jimmy Reed’s Baby What’s Wrong, the world music groove of Zanzibar and roots music staples like Going Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue and Corrina that were highlights of albums Mahal cut for the Columbia label in the late ‘60s.
Even so, the mere suggestion of the word “blues” presents a sometimes unavoidable stereotype where the music may be respected for its tradition but, in a performance situation, can often be viewed as a tired, archaic art form.
“So what’s the assumption here? Is it that the audiences have an understanding of what is it is that I do and need to hear something new? Well, that’s not how it happens when I go out and play somewhere. When I go and play, what they want to hear is something old. It can be like quicksand with a shifting goal post.
“This is why a lot of guys sign off early and put out garbage music. It’s easier that way. But the day’s work I put into music is still wonderful. It’s an incredible commitment to play the music in the real space and actually be able to make a living at it. This is what I’ve done for years, but not without a level of sacrifice. Still, when the music is played and people seriously enjoy it, it’s a wonderful time.
“So I hope people that come to the show there can dance. And if you can’t dance, just tell me you can dance.”
The Taj Mahal Trio performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Kentucky Theatre, 214 E. Main. Tickets are $38.50. Call (859) 231-7924.
(above, the Taj Mahal Trio: Kester Smith, Taj Mahal, Bill Rich. photo by C. Taylor Crothers)
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.