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Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Taj Mahal - Taj Mahal (1968 us, electric blues masterpiece, 2017 japan reissue)



Taj Mahal's debut album was a startling statement in its time and has held up remarkably well. Recorded in August of 1967, it was as hard and exciting a mix of old and new blues sounds as surfaced on record in a year when even a lot of veteran blues artists (mostly at the insistence of their record labels) started turning toward psychedelia. The guitar virtuosity, embodied in Taj Mahal's slide work (which had the subtlety of a classical performance), Jesse Ed Davis's lead playing, and rhythm work by Ry Cooder and Bill Boatman, is of the neatly stripped-down variety that was alien to most records aiming for popular appeal, and the singer himself approached the music with a startling mix of authenticity and youthful enthusiasm. 

The whole record is a strange and compelling amalgam of stylistic and technical achievements -- filled with blues influences of the 1930s and 1940s, but also making use of stereo sound separation and the best recording technology. The result was numbers like Sleepy John Estes' "Diving Duck Blues," with textures resembling the mix on the early Cream albums, while "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues" (even with Cooder's animated mandolin weaving its spell on one side of the stereo mix) has the sound of a late '40s Chess release by Muddy Waters. Blind Willie McTell ("Statesboro Blues") and Robert Johnson ("Dust My Broom") are also represented, in what had to be one of the most quietly, defiantly iconoclastic records of 1968.
by Bruce Eder


Tracks
1.Leaving Trunk (Sleepy John Estes) - 4:52
2.Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell) - 2:59
3.Checkin' Up On My Baby (Sonny Boy Williamson) - 4:55
4.Everybody's Got To Change Sometime (Sleepy John Estes) - 2:58
5.E Z Rider (Taj Mahal) - 3:04
6.Dust My Broom (Robert Johnson) - 2:39
7.Diving Duck Blues (Sleepy John Estes) - 2:43
8.The Celebrated Walkin' Blues (Traditional) - 8:53

Musicians
*Taj Mahal - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals, Slide Guitar
*Ry Cooder - Rhythm Guitar, Mandolin
*Jessie Edwin Davis - Lead Guitar, Piano
*Bill Boatman - Rhythm Guitar
*Christopher Sisson - Acoustic Guitar
*James Thomas - Bass
*Gary Gilmore - Bass
*Sanford Konikoff - Drums
*Charles Blackwell - Drums

1968  Taj Mahal - The Natch'l Blues

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11 comments:

  1. Many thanks, Marios, for helping to spread my blog and for your excellent posts!
    Greetings from Brazil!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Marios. My brother recommended this to me many years ago. He was very excited about it when it came out. Played it to me over the phone from London. Now I have a chance to hear it at last.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,

    Thanks so much for this and for your great blog.

    A request please:

    Forever and Ever - The First Look of Forever and Ever - 1967 jubilee records

    Im really looking forward to listen this record, I’ll be very grateful for any help.

    Regards,
    Joel

    ReplyDelete
  4. The password zara doesn't work. Please advise. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This was the album that Duane Allman listened to over and over again recovering from and illness that taught him to play slide guitar!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Killer Blues!!!

    Thanks for post it!!!

    Luciano

    ReplyDelete