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Elly Roberts reviews
Guitar totting Bluesman Taj Mahal flooded the Bridgewater Hall with his unique blend of eclectic fusions.
Waves and waves of exotic blues, to equally match his stage name and shirt,gushed out of his Gibson guitars, Roland keyboard and banjo. Despite the lowerthan expected turnout, and possibly the inappropriate venue in terms ofintimacy, he turned on the predictable style as part of his latest outfit,The Taj Mahal Trio.
Formed three years ago with long-time cohort, bassist Bill Rich and relativenewcomer, sticksman Kester Smith, they rate as a formidable threesome. Rocksolid in the rhythm section, they laid the foundation for Taj (real name HenrySt. Claire Fredericks) to layer deft touches on picks and riffs.
Like many of his great predecessors and contemporaries, he has the ultimate’touch factor’ from the school of B.B.King, Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, JimmyPage and Eric Clapton. Never OTT, his guitar style is well into the economyclass, but with fantastic effect.
On the night there wasn’t a hit song in sight, but a huge reputation forinfluencing a generation of aspiring young black bluesmen such as ‘musicalson’ Eric Bibb.
Without the aid of a setlist (Jazz and Blues players rarely have one) it wasoften difficult to identify song titles, compounded by a lack of clarity onthe microphone early on. Speaking less than Eric Clapton on a good night,he regularly mumbled to himself.
On the keys he sang a delightful Little Bit Heaven, bobbing his head more than David Gray ever does.His possible signature tune, thecountry-fuelled Fishin’ Blues was a defining moment. Creating imagesof Caribbean stylings, which he dabbled with in the early 70s, When I FeelThe Sea Beneath My Soul took his eclecticism to a higher level. Otherdelights included the hilariously simplistic Ah Ha Ah Ha Blues, whichcontained no further lyrics.
Clapton is nicknamed ‘Slow Hand’, Mahal therefore must be ‘Slow, Slow Slow Hand.’
Meeting with the great man after the show, he resembled an older guy fromthe ‘hood: black hat and pants, and white tunic. His enormous and imposingframe defied the gentleness of his songwriting and deftness of touch. Politeto a fault, we briefly spoke; he signed my CD, I had some pictures with himand off he drifted into the night.
Sensational night.
Weblink: Taj Blues.com
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.