Artist: Taj Mahal
Label: Columbia Records
Released: 1968
Runtime: 32.55
Rating: 4.5/5
Blues rock had never before flaunted such a singular aroma and such an inimitably full flavor, not until the arrival of Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, today a celebrated blues attraction going by the stage name Taj Mahal. Right on his debut studio adventure, Taj Mahal sets off on a mission impossible. At least that’s how it looks at first glance, since Taj tries his luck with a seemingly hastily gathered bouquet of blues standards by famous and less renowned musicians. The gamble turns into a triumph on every front when, once the dust settles, “Taj Mahal” presents a colorful palette of emotionally charged yet originally arranged tunes, the fruit of undeniable quality and, in its own way, of the musician’s exceptional vision.
Taj Mahal makes friends with the sturdy old blues hardware incredibly fast. The key to his success lies in the uniqueness of his approach, which gives the imagination free rein and plays with how the genre’s basic facial features are presented. In doing so, Taj successfully works both his vocals and the conducting of a basically lined-up instrumental phalanx. The old machinery for interpreting long-orphaned blues gems is right at its expiration date here, but not entirely written off, it unexpectedly meets the rising tide of rock, funk and blues-related influences. So what does Taj do? You can be sure he doesn’t stand between the two worlds with arms folded, but rather mixes them together, blends them and finally ferments them into an exotic, far-from-innocent brew, a miracle opiate destined to become the spiritual food of coming generations of blues-rock enthusiasts. Taj Mahal likes to tinker around urban-flavored blues standards, shining for example with “Checkin’ up on My Baby” (Sonny Boy Williamson) and Johnson’s “Dust My Broom”, which understandably took on the character of the more famous Elmore James version, and then at other times he heads back to the swamps of Mississippi, where he sweats over thrillingly upgraded interpretations of the civilization-forgotten Sleepy John Estes creations “Leaving Trunk”, “Diving Duck Blues” and “Everybody’s Got to Change Sometime”, wrapping up this thrilling rural expedition with the slightly more domesticated Blind Willie McTell classic Statesboro Blues.
The result of Mahal’s enthusiastic kneading of old blues forms shows in the modern, almost rock-like texture of the selected tracks, which makes the standards more accessible, actually more “polished”, while staying spontaneous enough to keep their core message. The worn-out, grey-haired blues forms have thus taken on a touch more (apparent) domesticity, and compared to the traditional ones they’ve moved more decisively toward the “urbanization” of the blues (probably in an effort not to scare the unsuspecting listeners). The fact that Taj Mahal’s debut is chronically short on original material is completely irrelevant. In the same breath we can add a dash of audacity and claim that Taj Mahal quietly started a proper little revolution, or better yet, launched the evolutionary currents which soon after eased the pangs of musical adolescence, above all for generations of milk-toothed blues-rock zealots from the British Isles. Today it’s perfectly clear what followed. Taj Mahal personally led the blues toward a brighter future!
Lineup
Taj Mahal: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Jesse Ed Davis: guitar
Ry Cooder: guitar
James Thomas: bass
Sanford Konikoff: drums
Production
Bob Irwin
Track list
1. Leaving Trunk
2. Statesboro Blues
3. Checkin’ up on My Baby
4. Everybody’s Got to Change Sometime
5. EZ Rider
6. Dust My Broom
7. Diving Duck Blues
8. The Celebrated Walkin’ Blues
