Taj Mahal

A blues guitarist who infused his style with musical influences from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, Taj Mahal helped pioneer world music while rejuvenating the roots and traditions of American folk music. Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in New York City (May 17, 1942), he soaked up a love of music from his jazz pianist father and gospel singing mother before taking up the guitar as a 13-year-old and forming a doo-wop group. Naming himself Taj Mahal after dreams he had of Gandhi and India, he formed R&B act The Rising Sons with Ry Cooder and went on to work with Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins and The Rolling Stones before releasing his self-titled debut in 1968. He dabbled with reggae and New Orleans jazz in the 1970s, and discovered calypso and zydeco when he moved to Hawaii in the 1980s, but hit his high point with the Grammy Award-winning Señor Blues (1997), a record which cobbled together all of Taj Mahal's musical expeditions into a jambalaya of rich sounds. In a career which spans over 50 years and includes over 40 studio albums, he has mastered more than 20 different instruments and continues to perform with exuberance and an infectious love of life at festivals across the world. In 2017, he debuted a collaboration with singer/guitarist Keb' Mo' on TajMo, followed by Room on the Porch in 2025. That same year, Taj Mahal received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award and won the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa. He and Keb’ Mo’ supported Room on the Porch with a revived TajMo tour, including appearances at the Grand Ole Opry and New York’s Town Hall, and the album was later nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2026 Grammy Awards. In 2026, Taj Mahal returned with Time, a new album with the Phantom Blues Band released through Resonatin’ Records and Thirty Tigers. Previewed by the singles “Time” and “Wild About My Lovin’,” the record included a previously unreleased Bill Withers composition as its title track and continued his long-running blend of blues, soul, folk, reggae, and roots music.