Taj Majal

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award-winning blues musician. He often incorporates elements of world music into his works.  A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo, and harmonica (among many other instruments),  Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, and the South Pacific.

Born in Harlem, New York, Mahal grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Raised in a musical environment, his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father was a West Indian jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music

Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of others. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., 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 clarinet, trombone, and harmonica. When Mahal was eleven his father was killed in an accident at his own construction company, crushed by a tractor when it flipped over.

Mahal's mother later remarried. His stepfather owned a guitar, which Taj began using at age 13 or 14, and in high school, he sang in a Doo-Wop group.  For some time Mahal thought of pursuing farming over music. He had developed a passion for farming that nearly rivaled his love of music—coming to work on a dairy farm first at age 16, and by age nineteen he had become a farm foreman.

Taj Mahal, his stage name, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959 or 1961—around the same time, he began attending the University of Massachusetts. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization, and majoring in animal husbandry and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy, Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college, he led a rhythm and blues band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the West Coast, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid

1964 he moved to Santa Monica, California, and formed Rising Sons with fellow blues musicians Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, landing a record deal with Columbia Records soon after, though an album was never released.  During this period, Mahal was working with Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Muddy Waters. Mahal stayed with Columbia after The Rising Sons to begin his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal in 1968, The Natch'l Blues in 1969, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home.  During this time he and Cooder worked with The Rolling Stones, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career.  He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia Records from the late 1960s into the 1970s.  In 1972 he wrote the film score for the movie Sounder.

In 1976 Mahal left Columbia Records and signed with Warner Bros. Records, recording three albums for them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers.

Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981.  He remained somewhat concealed from most eyes while working out of Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision, which started a comeback of sorts for him.

In the 1990s, he was on the Private Music label, releasing albums full of blues, pop, R&B, and rock, and did collaborative work with Eric Clapton and Etta James.

In 1997 he won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000.  Besides the two Grammy Awards (nine nominations) over his career, he also won the 2006 Blues Music Awards' Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal.

On May 22, 2011, Taj Mahal received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina 

(Taj Mahal at River Blues Festival in Philadelphia 1992)