In 1968, Taj Mahal was onstage at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles when he realised he was performing to a who's who of British rock music. 'Three of the Stones were dancing, along with three of The Animals,' he recalls. 'Eric Clapton was in the back of the room. There was a current going back and forth.' The young stars of the British Invasion borrowed heavily from the blues, and were intoxicated by Mahal's electrified version of American roots music. Mahal, then 26, had grown up in the States tuning into UK radio shows. After his set, he approached Mick Jagger and asked him to let him know if there was ever an opportunity for his band to play in England. 'Three months later, they sent us eight first class round-trip tickets,' he remembers. 'We went over and they treated us absolutely the best we'd ever been treated by anybody.' The Rolling Stones invited him to perform at their Rock and Roll Circus, a star-studded concert also featuring John Lennon and The Who. 'It was wonderful,' says Mahal. 'We were travelling with the Stones and wherever they went, it was happening.'
Six Decades of Blues
Almost six decades later, Mahal, now 83, is backstage in Los Angeles again, preparing for a show at The Wiltern. He has become a five-time Grammy winner and released more than 40 records. His new album, Time, features collaborations with Ziggy Marley and a previously unheard Bill Withers tune. Mahal, dressed in a black baseball jacket and dark circular shades with a red neckerchief, speaks in a low, resonant drawl. 'It's all about the music,' he says. 'I love the people, and like to see them enjoying it.'
Early Life and Influences
Mahal has been immersed in music his whole life. His father, Henry St Claire Fredericks Sr, was a composer and arranger who worked with Ella Fitzgerald. 'He was an all-around musician, a classically trained Caribbean piano player who played jazz, jump blues and swing,' says Mahal. However, his father gave up his career after marrying Mahal's mother. The family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where Mahal's mother sang in a gospel choir. As a teenager, Mahal worked on a dairy farm and thought music might just be something he did between milking cows and growing corn. 'I knew from ancient tradition that music always accompanies whatever it is that we did,' he says. 'I would have played it on my back porch on the farm, or wherever, but I never had enough collateral to buy a farm, so music came and got me! I came out to California, hooked up with Ry Cooder, and things started rolling.'
Rising Sons and Solo Career
Henry Jr adopted his stage name in the early 1960s, inspired by dreams about Mahatma Gandhi. In 1964, he moved to Santa Monica to meet guitarist Ry Cooder. They formed the band Rising Sons and played at the Ash Grove folk club. After Rising Sons split in 1966, Mahal released his first two solo albums in 1968: Taj Mahal and The Natch'l Blues, which included 'She Caught The Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)', later covered by John Belushi for The Blues Brothers. 'All I wanted to do was eventually be able to write good tunes,' says Mahal. 'I've had some success with that.'
Caribbean Influences and Bob Marley
In the early 1970s, Mahal incorporated more Caribbean sounds into his music, such as on the reggae-inspired Mo' Roots (1974), which featured Wailers bassist Aston 'Family Man' Barrett. During the recording, he got to know Bob Marley. 'He came to my house and we were trying to create something together,' he recalls. 'But we never got around to it.' On Time, Mahal and Ziggy Marley duet on 'Talkin' Blues', a song Mahal helped inspire. 'Talkin' Blues is about me!' he says. 'Bob sings: 'I've been down on the rock so long/ I seem to wear a permanent screw'. Who came up with that? I appreciated that! Bob was a competitive person, but we always had a good rapport.'
Preserving the Blues
Mahal has been a preservationist and interpreter of blues music for decades. His first album was all reinvented covers, including an arrangement of Blind Willie McTell's 'Statesboro Blues' that inspired the Allman Brothers Band. On Time, he records a Bill Withers demo that the soul singer never released before his death in 2020. 'For me, it's an example of the industry being so ignorant, with their heads up their keisters,' says Mahal. 'He was a complete creative, and they were telling him he had to use synthesisers and speed up his music! Bill was somebody I really liked, and if they had not gotten in his way, think how much more music you would be able to hear. Every time he did something, it sounded like him, but it sounded new.'
Global Inspirations and the Phantom Blues Band
Mahal's nomadic musical spirit has drawn inspiration from Mali to India. These influences filtered into his work with the Phantom Blues Band, a backing group built around drummer Tony Braunagel, bassist Larry Fulcher, and guitarist Johnny Lee Schell. Their collaborations helped Mahal win back-to-back Grammys in the late 1990s and produced songs like 'Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes', which he wrote while caring for his daughter Deva. 'I think she must have been about three,' he recalls. 'She was on the veranda, looking up at me. I looked at her, and energy went back and forth. We were communicating. She was smiling. That stuck in my head: 'Loving in my baby's eyes.''
The Blues Will Never Die
Mahal reunites with the Phantom Blues Band on Time, a record that demonstrates his ease with country-fried banjo hoedowns, New Orleans-style funk, and sun-kissed reggae. He closes the album with a playful cover of 'Rowdy Blues', a song from the 1929 recording session of Delta bluesman Kid Bailey. 'I love that 'Rowdy Blues', and when we play it we have a good time,' he says. 'This is not dead music! You will never chew all the flavour out of the blues. No way. Jazz will give you back your mind, reggae will give you back your body, but the blues? The blues will give you back your soul.'
Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band's 'Time' is out now.
