Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt perform Tajs
'Done Changed My Way of Living’ on NBCs The Today Show
“The music had cultural value,” Taj insists, “not just something that was going to be on the Hit Parade on radio Friday nights. Back then, the songs I was hearing might not have had value for everybody, but they were important to me. The records back then were like relatives talking to you. It wasn’t Top of the Pops or Top 20 Countdown or anything like that.“That all changed in the ’60s, when the record industry started feeding us only music they were making money off of. We were being programmed, and I was much more interested in being programmed by my own culture.”“If you want to know anything about me,” he insists, “I’m more impressed by my what my ancestors think about me than anything else going…no matter what! That’s why, for me, I consider the records of Toumani Diabaté, the kora master from Mali, so important. Through it, I managed to make the connection to my ancestral music — and that all came through finger picking!”One day, he was down in the basement when he discovered his stepfather’s six-string and started to teach himself how to play using a broken comb for a pick.“At some point, I became fascinated with Jimmy Reed. I liked his tempo, what he had to say. And then I got lucky enough to run into a neighbor next door, Lynwood Perry. I was 14 or 15, and he was a little older – and he could play. He came right out of the tradition in North Carolina. He could play a whole bunch of stuff…Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Boy Fuller.
Marty Gunther / Blues Blast Interview
Photo source: Amy Richmond / Taj Mahal on FB
For his Birthday where it all began for me!
From Rock Machine Turns You On came this I was 15!
