Taj Mahal

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, known as Taj Mahal, is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and musicologist who has done more than perhaps any other artist to explore and celebrate the global roots of the blues. Born in Harlem to a West Indian musician father and a South Carolina gospel-singing mother, he studied at the University of Massachusetts and co-founded the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder before launching a solo career with Columbia Records in 1968. His early albums blended Delta blues, ragtime, and Caribbean music, and his subsequent career has encompassed African, Hawaiian, and South Pacific musical traditions alongside traditional American blues. He has won three Grammy Awards and is revered as one of the most knowledgeable and adventurous interpreters of the blues tradition.