Taj Mahal - The Matrix

Reality is that most people — no matter how seemingly separated in geography and society (from Quincy Jones in Los Angeles to Delfeayo Marsalis in New Orleans to Raimundo "Mago do Nordeste" / "Wizard of the Northeast" Sodré in Brazil ... to you, wherever you are, my friend) — are within scant degrees of most other people (the so-called "six degrees of separation" phenomenon) everywhere. The Matrix is a parallel universe of worldlines combining this principle with the most powerful, subtle and wide-ranging recommendation software yet developed: the collective human mind. This is the red pill. No information harvested per FB/Cambridge Analytica.

Worldlines In ~ These People Curate Me

I am curated in these categories by these people. Further info by clicking on curation category buttons.

Worldlines Out ~ I (See Important Above) Curate These People

I am curatable in: 4 categories
I have received: 20 curations
I CURATE THESE PEOPLE IN THESE CATEGORIES > 40 curations

Who I Am & Where I Live

Name: Taj Mahal
City: Los Angeles, California
Country: United States

My Life

Biographical: The parents of Harlem born Henry St. Claire Fredericks, Jr. (Mahal’s given name until his dreams of Gandhi, India and social tolerance inspired him to change it) came of age during the Harlem Renaissance and instilled in their son a sense of pride in his West Indian and African ancestry. Growing up in Springfield Massachusetts, Mahal’s father was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger of Caribbean descent (called “The Genius” by Ella Fitzgerald) who frequently hosted musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and the U.S. His mother was a schoolteacher and gospel singer from South Carolina. Henry Sr. had an extensive record collection and a shortwave radio that brought sounds from across the world into their home.

Back in the 1950s, Springfield was full of recent arrivals from all over the globe, allowing Mahal to understand and appreciate many world cultures. “We spoke several dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean, African – and we heard dialects from eastern and western Europe,” he says. In addition, musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited the Fredericks home, and Mahal became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of the various forms of music he was hearing, the path they took to reach their current form, and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into the study of older forms of African-American music, which the major record companies of the day largely ignored.

Mahal’s parents started him out on classical piano lessons, but he soon expanded his scope to include clarinet, trombone and harmonica and discovered his talent for singing. His stepfather (his mother remarried after Henry Sr. was killed in a tragic accident) owned a guitar and Mahal began playing it in his early teens, becoming serious when a guitarist from North Carolina moved in next door and taught him the various styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.

Before music became a viable option, Mahal – who first began working on a dairy farm at 16 and was a foreman by 19 – thought about pursuing a career in farming. Over the years, this ongoing passion has led to him performing regularly at Farm Aid concerts. In the early 60s, he studied agriculture (minoring in veterinary science and agronomy) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he formed the popular U. Mass party band, the Elektras. After graduating, he headed west in 1964 to Los Angeles, where he formed the Rising Sons, a six-piece outfit that included guitarist Ry Cooder.

The band opened for numerous high-profile touring artists of the ‘60s, including Otis Redding, the Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas. Around this same time, Mahal also mingled with various blues legends, including Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sleepy John Estes. He and Cooder also worked during this period with the Rolling Stones, and in 1968, he performed in the classic film “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.”

This diversity of musical experience served as the bedrock for Mahal’s first three recordings: Taj Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues (1968) and Giant Step (1969). Drawing on the eclectic sounds and styles he’d absorbed as a child and a young adult, these early albums showed signs of the musical exploration that would become Mahal’s hallmark in the years to come. In the 1970s, Mahal carved out a unique musical niche with a string of adventurous recordings, including Happy To be Just Like I Am (1971), Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff (1972), the GRAMMY®-nominated soundtrack to the movie Sounder (1973), Mo’ Roots (1974), Music Fuh Ya (Music Para Tu) (1977) and Evolution (The Most Recent) (1978). The type of blues he was playing in the early 70s showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with exotic flavors that kept him from being an out and out mainstream genre performer.

Mahal’s recorded output slowed somewhat during the 1980s as he toured relentlessly and immersed himself in the music and culture of his new home in Hawaii. Still, that decade saw the well-received release of Mahal in 1987, as well as the first three of his celebrated children’s albums on the Music For Little People label. He returned to a full recording and touring schedule in the 1990s, including such projects as the musical scores for the Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone (1991) and the movie Zebrahead (1992). Later in the decade, Mahal released a series of recordings with the Phantom Blues Band, including Dancing the Blues (1993), Phantom Blues (1996), and the two GRAMMY® winners, Señor Blues (1997) and the live Shoutin’ in Key (2000). Overall, he has been nominated for nine GRAMMY® Awards.

During this same period, Mahal continued to expand his multicultural horizons by joining Indian classical musicians on Mumtaz Mahal in 1995, and recording Sacred Island, a blend of Hawaiian music and blues, with the Hula Blues Band in 1998. Kulanjan, released in 1999, was a collaborative project with Malian kora master Toumani Diabate (the kora is a 21-string west African harp). Mahal felt that this recording embodied his musical and cultural spirit arriving full circle. He recorded a second album with the Hula Blues Band, Hanapepe Dream, in 2003, followed by the European release Zanzibar in 2005. His 2008 Heads Up International recording Maestro marked the 40th anniversary of his recording career and featured performances by Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Angelique Kidjo, Los Lobos, Ziggy Marley and others – many of whom have been directly influenced by Mahal’s music and guidance.

“What inspires me most about my career is that I’ve been able to make a living playing the music that I always loved and wanted to play since the early 50s,” Mahal says. “And the fact that I still am involved in enjoying an exciting career at this point in time is truly priceless. I’m doing this the old fashioned way and it ain’t easy. I work it and I earn it. My relationship with my audience has been fun, with great respect going both ways! I am extremely lucky to have fans who have listened to the music I choose to play and have stayed with me for 50 years. These fans have also introduced their children, grandchildren and in some cases great-grand children to this fabulous treasure of music that I am privileged to represent. It’s very exciting, to say the least.

“Like ancient culture,” he adds, “the people are as much a part of the performance as the music. Live communication through music, oh yeah, it’s right up there with oxygen!”

In September 2014, some 50 years after moving to Los Angeles to form the band Rising Sons with fellow blues musician Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, Taj Mahal hightailed it to Nashville to receive an honor he called “one of the most powerful and wonderful things that could ever happen in my life.” Celebrating decades of recording and touring that have nearly singlehandedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues via the infusion of exotic sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and South Pacific, the two-time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, film composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist was feted with the Lifetime Achievement for Performance Award at the 13th Annual Americana Honors and Awards.

“I’ve been performing for over 50 years, and to be recognized for the road I’ve traveled means the world to me, says Mahal, who during the show performed “Statesboro Blues” – which he first recorded on his eponymous 1968 debut album – on dobro with a band that included Cooder and Don Was. “I could not have done this without the audience that has been so supportive of me throughout my musical journey. It was a fantastic night and I was thrilled to be there and celebrated among such other outstanding American musical treasures like Jackson Browne and Flaco Jimenez, whose music and talent I am a fan of. It certainly represented a diversity of musical styles and culture. That’s what I’m talking about essay help!”

The night at the legendary Ryman Auditorium capped another extraordinary year for Mahal, which began with a performance at the Gregg Allman Tribute Concert in Atlanta and included playing on the entire Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas album; performing as part of the Bonnaroo Superjam on a bill featuring Derek Trucks with Chaka Khan, Eric Krasno from Soulive, renowned R&B/blues session drummer James Gadson, David Hidalgo from Los Lobos and Susan Tedeschi; and playing and recording with Van Morrison in Dublin.

Since the release of 2008’s Maestro, his most recent studio recording which received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Mahal has been busier than ever touring and recording at a whirlwind pace with old friends and fellow musical sojourners. In 2010, after being nominated for Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation, he joined Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night studio band The Roots as a special musical guest on the Rolling Stones classic “Shine a Light.” He also opened in Lake Tahoe for Bob Dylan. One of the highlights of the following year as performing a special opening solo set for Eric Clapton and Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center; Mahal also performed several songs with his two fellow legends. The concert was recorded and released as a CD and CD/DVD entitled “Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play The Blues – Live From Jazz at Lincoln Center.”

After starting 2012 producing and performing (vocals, guitar and banjo) on Vusi Mahlasela’s live album Say Africa, Mahal joined the critically acclaimed Experience Hendrix tour for a three week run that included performances by everyone from Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa and Robby Krieger to Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Keb’ Mo’ and Living Colour. Energized anew after the Sony Legacy release of two collections celebrating the riches and rarities of his musical legacy – the two disc set The Hidden Treasures of Mahal Mahal 1967-1973, featuring a full live 1970 concert from Royal Albert Hall, and The Complete Columbia Albums Collection box set, featuring all of his LPs from 1968-1976 – the bluesman enjoyed a wildly productive 2013.

That spring found Mahal singing and playing harmonica on “Further Down the Road” from Clapton’s Old Sock album, and performing as a featured guest at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival at MSG (NYC) where over 30 of the world’s greatest guitarists played sidemen to each other over two nights. Mahal jammed with The Allman Brothers Band featuring David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos and in a special unplugged acoustic set with Keb’ Mo’.

That June marked the release of the all-star soundtrack album to “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” a supernatural blues n’ roots musical featuring music and lyrics by John Mellencamp, a libretto by author Stephen King and production by T-Bone Burnett. Mahal appeared on “Home Again” with Sheryl Crow, Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin, in addition to “Tear This Cabin Down” and “What Kind of Man Am I.” He later performed on “Vicksburg Blues” on actor/recording artist Hugh Laurie’s album Didn’t It Rain and a new rendition of his song “Winding Down” on the Sammy Hagar & Friends recording. He capped the year with “An Evening with Taj Mahal” at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Mahal’s career has been full of and defined by colorful twists and turns, unexpected whimsical ventures and a commitment to a muse that has long preferred freewheeling innovation to conformity. So there’s always the challenge of finding the right words and phrases to capture just what he’s meant to American music over the past half century. Miles Mellough, who wrote the stark and honest, no holds barred liner notes for The Complete Columbia Albums Collection, captures the complexities perfectly on several posts he penned on his blog Birds with Broken Wings after the box set came out.

“Here’s the thing, plain and simple,” he writes. “Taj Mahal has always been a conundrum; a man who is capable of mirroring many things to many people, and the reason why is because he’s an enigma — an alchemist and a contrarian…Through his music he’s been a dirt farmer, a man of gentry, and a Mississippi riverboat gambler. He’s played the role of the pious country preacher of old South camp meetings to a chain gang prisoner breaking rocks in the hot, midday sun. He’s been a hard-boiled harp player with a gold tooth and process blowing gritty on the South side of Chicago to a West Indies fishing boat captain sipping Banana Daiquiri’s with a St. Kitts woman…Like the blues tree with its many roots, Mahal has become the sum of many parts. But if you were to strip him of the elements that have come to define him publicly, you’d no doubt find that beneath it all he’s really just a simple man with a harp, a steel guitar, and a banjo in his rucksack; a man making music with a whole hell of a lot of heart and soul.”

In another post, Mellough ruminated on the global fusion approach Mahal has taken to the blues, which has caused its share of controversy: “While purists may have sometimes had issues with his unusual blend of acoustic blues mingled with the sweet sounds of Africa, the West Indies and South Pacific Islands, I believe Mahal elevated the music form to an entirely new plane. By approaching the blues from a global perspective, Mahal presents it as part of a broader musical palette, a world canvas. Using traditional country blues as a starting place, Mahal perfumes the pot by mixing a spicy concoction of Afrocentric roots music, a blues gumbo kissed by reggae, Latin, R&B, Cajun, Caribbean rhythms, gospel, West African folk, jazz, calypso, and Hawaiian slack key. The savory dish he serves is both a satisfying and uplifting stew that actually transforms ‘singin’ the blues’ into something to be very happy about.”

My Media

Website: http://www.tajblues.com
Twitter: tajmahalblues
Instagram: tajmahalblues
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCIi2-PY_EP6il-Tossk8Sg

Listen on Spotify

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/0kEaFupzvrGdcczROS519i
Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/3NF642glRZZKf3Ng96eMfX
Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/2PqzqwqXkeDn5UoL4WSkV6
Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/1J4901NnEbPx0sTbfQlahA
Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/5TwkXJeaiFZgXlhR170pBV
Spotify 6: https://open.spotify.com/album/1GbhjRuzJiGstNOvjdrweH

Contact Information

Management/Booking: Taj Mahal Management
Giant Step Management
Valerie Celene
tmmgmt12@gmail.com

Booking information or inquiries for United States, Canada, and Australia
Contact: Paradigm Talent Agency
Paul Goldman
pgoldman@paradigmagency.com
o: 831-625-6300

For booking information or inquiries for OUTSIDE the United States, Canada, and Australia
Contact: Katherine McVicker Director of Music Works International
katherine@musicworksinternational.com
o:+781-300-7580
c:+339-927-5289

Clips

Queen Bee
By Taj Mahal

78 views

Hey there! Questions? We'll answer them! Need your login info? We've got it! Inaccuracies? Faulty curations by the Ghost in the Machine? Contact us here, or email sparrowroberts@gmail.com. Thank you! (I'm Randy "Pardal/Sparrow" Roberts and I built this matrix!)

EZ INSTRUCTIONS

The matrix is a small world curation network.

It is designed to be coursed through, from node (person/entity) to node to node in a voyage of discovery.

This is universal open curation in series. A 21st century twist on the oldest and most effective means of publicity of all: word-of-mouth.

Curations in series form worldlines, which enter pages via the THEY CURATE ME section and exit via the I CURATE THEM section (above).

The totality of worldlines taken together make up the matrix...a matrix in the original sense of "source", from "mater", Latin for "mother".

We are — per below — real mothers for ya!

All are welcome to curate, and all may decide for themselves whose judgement to trust. One aspect of open curation is that it allows us to see the curations of performing experts in their area, no matter how obscure this area might be, areas where perhaps there are no professional curators.

After a page has been created (it can be as simple or as complex as you like) you create arts-related categories for which you can be recommended. Examples can be seen at the bottom of every member page, including your own.

Categories for which you can be recommended are created in your "THEY CURATE ME" section. Then when somebody clicks on one of your categories, their image and a link back to their own page will appear there. You will appear in their "I CURATE THEM" section.

When YOU click on somebody else's category in their "THEY CURATE ME" section on their page, your image and a link back to your own page will appear there. THEY will appear in YOUR "I CURATE THEM" section.

If wish merely to curate (recommend), simply don't create categories for yourself. Whatever the case, people getting to your page can see who you think is great. The people you think are great can see you think they are great!

You can put Spotify album or artist links in the Spotify fields; people on your page can click on these links and the Spotify web player will open up to your music.

You can put your music into your own Matrix player by clicking on the Add Music button at the top of your (or any) page.

You can embed YouTube videos into your own video page by clicking on the Add Videos button at the top of your (or any) page.

Join from the top of any page.

If you find yourself sufficiently moved by this artist, click on categories for which they may be recommended (within their THEY CURATE ME area) above. The artist, together with the categories for which you are recommending them, will then appear on your own I CURATE THEM list.

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WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORLD'S FIRST EVER SMALL WORLD CURATION NETWORK?

Any artist (in any field) in any place in the world can be potentially reached by anybody from anywhere.

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We've all heard of six degrees of separation, more properly called a small world network. Within six or so steps we can move through a chain of people knowing other people to just about anybody on the planet.

SIMPLY CHANGE "KNOW" TO "RECOMMEND"

In exactly the same way, step by step we can move through chains of ARTISTS RECOMMENDING (curating) OTHER ARTISTS to to just about any artist on the planet.

LIKE THIS...

Quincy Jones recommends artists under his wing including stellar young Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez. Alfredo recommends a fabulous multinstrumentalist he plays with, Munir Hossn. Two more steps and we've reached Raimundo Sodré, lost in Bahia:

Raimundo Sodré Now

Dengo

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DICTATED SILENCE

Sodré's meteoric major-label career was crushed and his life threatened by the Brazilian dictatorship years ago, sending him into a 19 year exile. He became almost impossible to find and hear.

MUSIC FALLS LIKE RAIN

But now lines of everbranching interlinked recommendations rise from Bahia to form a (small world) network rounding the planet like the arboreal canopy of a vast Amazonian rainforest. When the dictatorship ground Sodré into the dust, they unwittingly planted a seed.

IS THE MATRIX AN ALTERNATE REALITY?

The original meaning of "matrix" is "source", from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!

Pre-Brazil we "rescued" unpaid royalties for performers and composers including Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Philip Glass, Mongo Santamaria, Airto Moreira, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Jim Hall, Robb Royer of Bread, Speedo & the Cadillacs, and many more! Recording by WXPN's Kim Junod

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