Taj Mahal has a degree in animal husbandry and agronomy, and planned to be a farmer. Music was just something he did. "No matter what went down, music was always going to be a part of my life," the ...

IT’S BEEN a good day for Taj Mahal. The Berkeley singer-musician has just learned that his latest record, “Maestro,” has received a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Blues Album category. Even ...

Taj Mahal Ta Mahal has been superbly playing guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano, mandolin, ukulele, steel drums, kalimba and many other instruments for a total of over 20 different ones. He has been ...

The great American musician, Taj Mahal (born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks), is, at heart, an essentialist. The music he loves is often the distilled essence of a genre or style, rather than the pomp ...

Taj Mahal flows effortlessly through his soundcheck at the Luckman Arts Complex, an elegant theater at California State University, Los Angeles. It’s only the second show of Mahal’s tour supporting ...

Taj Mahal doesn't just play world music; he embodies it. Rooted in American blues, his songs' influences range from West African to Hawaiian. But they do have something in common: "The one thing I've ...

Start talking about “the blues,” and for most people, a series of familiar images come to mind: shot glasses, neon lights, pork pie hats, and sweaty-yet-still-distinguished-looking men and women ...

Slide guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder and blues musician Taj Mahal started their careers together. They formed the Rising Sons and signed to Columbia in 1965 but disbanded a year later, and the group’s sole ...

It’s been a long time so it’s hard to remember exactly, but some time in the winter of 1970-71, Taj Mahal played the Houston Music Hall. Between 1968 and 1971, he had put out five albums and become a ...

Taj Mahal can rightfully be called a living legend for his contributions to popular music. With a voice as instantly recognizable as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, or Johnny Cash, throughout his career ...

Way back in ninth grade, my brother gave me Taj Mahal's greatest hits copied onto a blank Maxell tape with a Jethro Tull album on the B-side. Every day on my subway ride to school, I'd pop the tape ...

Taj Mahal is back in Berkeley. He stalks the street like a horse, striding down Shattuck Avenue with a thoroughbred's grace. In other places, this mountain of a man in white pants, tropical shirt and ...