Taj Mahal

September 2024 · 4 minute read

A few miles away from Pico Boulevard's the Mint, the history of the blues was being celebrated in high fashion: the Blues Foundation rightly honoring Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby Bland with speeches and performances that spoke to the heart of the genre's past and potential. Taj Mahal, meanwhile, was speaking to that same heart in these comfy confines, connecting the dots from the Delta to Memphis to Chicago, conjuring the ghost of Mississippi John Hurt one moment and Otis Redding the next.

A few miles away from Pico Boulevard’s the Mint, the history of the blues was being celebrated in high fashion: the Blues Foundation rightly honoring Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby Bland with speeches and performances that spoke to the heart of the genre’s past and potential. Taj Mahal, meanwhile, was speaking to that same heart in these comfy confines, connecting the dots from the Delta to Memphis to Chicago, conjuring the ghost of Mississippi John Hurt one moment and Otis Redding the next.

Mahal shows not only how well his material has aged, but how blues and its various splinters ripen in the right hands. Over two career-spanning 90-minute sets, Mahal and his Phantom Blues Band were impeccably tight, dipping into his ’60s recordings (“Corrina,” “Goin’ Up to the Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue,” “Six Days on the Road”) and nicely representing his underappreciated ’90s recordings on Private Music; the alternately smokey and bubbly tone of “Phantom Blues” informed the evening as a whole.

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Principal purpose behind Mahal’s three-night stint is a live recording. He’s currently without a label, although he’s ostensibly out to support Sony Legacy’s new three-CD compilation “In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998,” a superb compendium of his work and a compass for the correct direction of the blues in the 21st century. Long revered for his performance skills — current evidence includes his track on the new Rolling Stones live album — a live album from Monday’s perf should go a long way toward cementing that reputation in the minds of anyone issuing blues recordings.

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Taj Mahal

The Mint; 300 capacity; $25

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