Taj mahal musician biography

Taj Mahal is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, ethnomusicologist, and award-winning artists. His music includes elements of Afro-Caribbean music, blues, folk, hula, funk and other influences.

Taj Mahal was born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, but grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father a jazz pianist composer and arranger of Caribbean descent and his mother a gospel-singing schoolteacher from South Carolina encouraged their children to respect and be proud of their roots. Taj’s father had an extensive record collection and a short-wave radio that brought sounds from near and far to Taj’s ears. His parents also started him on classical piano lessons, but after two weeks he says “it was already clear I had my own concept of how I wanted to play.” The lessons stopped, but Taj didn’t.

In addition to piano, the young musician learned to play the clarinet trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered his stepfather’s guitar and became serious about it in his early teens when Lynnwood Perry, an accomplished young guitarist from North Carolina, moved in next door. Perry was an expert in the Piedmont style of playing, but he could also play like Muddy Waters, Lightin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Jimmy Reed. Taj was inspired to begin playing guitar in earnest.

Springfield in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals both from abroad and from elsewhere in the U.S. “We spoke several dialects in my house, Southern, Caribbean, African, and we heard dialects from eastern and Western Europe,” said Taj. In addition, musicians from the Caribbean Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited the Fredericks’ household. Taj became even more fascinated with roots, where all the different forms of music he was hearing came from what path they took to get to their current states, how they influenced each other on the way. He threw himself into the study of o

Blues, jazz, and folk musician Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in Harlem, New York on May 17, 1942.   He was raised in Springfield, Massachusetts by musically gifted parents. Mahal’s father was a jazz musician and his mother a gospel singer.  As a child, Mahal learned how to play various instruments, such as the piano, harmonica, clarinet, and guitar.

Mahal attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst during the early 1960s. He played in the institution’s band, the Electras. Mahal became a blues performer who specializes in a variety of musical genres, including country blues, reggae, jazz, rhythm and blues, ragtime and folk music. As a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer, he plays the guitar, harmonica, and banjo. Mahal has traveled the globe, and has learned to fuse different nontraditional forms of music into blues.

After graduating in 1964, Mahal moved to Los Angeles, California and formed the Rising Sons, which consisted of Ry Cooder, Ed Cassidy, Jesse Lee Kinkaid, Gary Marker, and Kevin Kelly. After signing a contract with Columbia Records, the Rising Sons broke up before releasing their first album. Mahal still stayed with Columbia, releasing three records: Taj Mahal (1968), The Natch’l Blues (1969), and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home (1969).

From the 1960s and into the 1970s, Mahal produced a total of twelve albums for Columbia, and in 1976, he left the record company for Warner Brother Records. With Warner Brothers, he scored the film Brothers in 1977. In 1980, Mahal moved to the Island of Kauai in Hawaii and formed the Hula Blues Band, which toured the Island.   The group blended traditional Hawaiian music and blues. His release of Taj in 1987 returned him to the musical scene in the 1990s.

Mahal made a comeback in the early 1990s, touring and releasing numerous albums. In 1991, he made a musical score for the Langston Hughes

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American blues musician (born 1942)

Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. (born May 17, 1942), better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.

Early life

Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. on May 17, 1942, in New York City. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in a musical environment: his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player.

The family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music. Early in childhood he recognized the stark differences between the popular music of his day and the music that was played in his home. He also became interested in jazz, enjoying the works of musicians such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson. His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his Caribbean and African ancestry through their stories.

Because his father was a musician, his home frequently hosted other musicians from the Caribbean, Africa, and the US. His father was called "The Genius" by Ella Fitzgerald before starting his family. Early on, Henry Jr. developed an interest in African music, which he studied assiduously as a young man. His parents encouraged him to pursue music, starting him out with classical piano lessons. He also studied the clarinet, trombone and harmonica.^&