[Cover photo credit to Phil Clarkin]
Legendary Roots artist Taj Mahal has released Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa, a live album, out now via Lightning Rod Records.
His latest project is a set recorded live at the Tulsa studio, best known as the home base of Shelter Records and the late Leon Russell, a huge influence and personal friend of Taj’s. The ten songs in the set reach across multiple genres that he has explored in his career.
The songs feature “The Taj Mahal Sextet,” which includes Taj’s long-time quartet, such as bassist Bill Rich, drummer Kester Smith, and guitarist/Hawaiian lap steel player Bobby Ingano, joined by dobro player Rob Ickes and guitarist and vocalist Trey Hensley.
Taj Mahal has also announced a U.S., Canada, and Australia tour with dates including Los Angeles’ Luckman Fine Arts Complex.
At 81 years old, Taj has four Grammy Awards to his name (out of fifteen nominations), alongsid releasing nearly 50 albums. He is proficient in 20 different instruments and has worked with musicians including The Rolling Stones, Etta James, Angelique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, and more.
Taj Mahal shares:
Some of us were gifted by our ancestors to be in a long line of musicians. It’s in your DNA. Others are lucky to find it and put in the dedication that it takes to be able to get there. So that’s my life as an 81-year-old—still playing music, still enjoying it, still getting to do the things I want to do.
Tulsa holds rich and tragic historical significance to Black history and culture. It was a hotbed for jazz and blues, with Tulsa being a stop on the famed Chitlin’ Circuit and home to the Greenwood neighborhood known as Black Wall Street due to its thriving Black community, Black businesses, and home to roughly 10,000 residents. It was all destroyed in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, where a white mob killed hundreds of residents, burned more than 1,250 homes, and erased years of Black success in the area.
Taj addresses this regional connection:
A lot of the people that caused that Massacre to happen were highly unevolved human beings. Unfortunately, this country didn’t start with the best of people; some of them didn’t have brains above their ankles, and they did not know how to handle the success of people they viewed as relegated to the bottom of society. Fortunately, there has been a tremendous amount of music and art to come out of the state of Oklahoma, and there’s a great, diverse population that’s there. The people have tried to make their way, and there’s been some progress that has been slow. Clearly and obviously, people have been working to evolve themselves past those kinds of ugly examples of what human beings can do, to and with, and against one another. Let’s hope that the lesson from that doesn’t fall on deaf ears and that we continue to evolve.
2024 Tour Dates
Mar 30 – 31, 2024 Byron Bay Bluesfest 2024, Tyagarah, Australia
