Taj Mahal has long been well ahead of the posse. He was purveying an eclectic, multicultural musical stew long before the marketing men (and many musicians) ever awoke to its possibilities. Taj, like Ry Cooder with whom he founded The Rising Sons, knew and was fascinated by the labyrinthine musical history of his own place and enjoyed a deep understanding of the many roots and nuances of what he calls "the foundational musics". And so, while a definite blues singer, his repertoire includes everything from Otis Redding to Hank Williams. His music is as Caribbean as it is West African, as urban as it is country.
Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, the young Henry Saint Claire Fredericks was exposed at an early age to several sides of American culture. His southern mother sang gospel and his Caribbean father brought with him the sophisticated rhythms of Latin and jazz. It was in many ways a similar background to that of the funky jazz pianist Horace Silver whose Senor Blues was the title track of Taj's 1997 Grammy Award-winning album - one of several recorded projects which he considers part of a definite plan to expose and restate the many strands in American music.
"When you live here in the States, it's not as though you're surrounded by an indigenous culture. You're being bombarded by different cultures - at least that was my experience of growing up. My parents were involved in jazz, classical music, gospel, be-bop and swing and I was always aware that there was a lot more out there than met the eye. I realised that popular music wasn't the only form of music that was available. So here we are in a very large multi-cultural situation where you constantly come across what other people do. Sometimes it relates and sometimes it doesn't. In the 1970s when I started branching out into Latin and Caribbean forms and bringing it directly in contact with so-called settled forms like blues, a lot of people were unsettled by that. To which I just said, too bad, we're all a part of humanity and the parts wouldn't work if they didn't fit. Nobody's going to go forward in a pure form any more - maybe in some far-flung places in the world where people haven't been interrupted by the outside world - but the real fact of it is that we're all winding within and outside each other's souls. So here we are! And how do we create a language for this? Music is that language."
After a degree in agriculture and animal husbandry, Taj took to singing around the coffee houses of Boston and exploring further the swirl of music that was around him. In 1964 he hooked up with Ry Cooder and his professional career began. In 1968 he performed as part of The Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll Circus and soon became a regular in the musical company of everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Bob Dylan to Bob Marley. His involvement in the music has always been intense, his presence constant, his observations insightful and his feelings strong. "I wouldn't be the one to say that I know where the music is going. But I'm sure that a hundred years ago they did not envisage Snoop Doggy Dog or any of the other contemporary groups that are out there. I know that the music has gone from basic drum beat and chant to include information from various other types of music, but right now I think black music is being very well policed by the music business right across the country. They're making money out of it and as long as they keep talking about gangsters and defiling women, then there's big dollars! I don't do that. I never have. I guess I'm what you call "romantic" and my relationship is very positive toward the other gender and toward other ethic groups. OK, I didn't go through what those guys go through, I didn't live where those guys live and I didn't live without information. But they don't have much information about the world."
In his many recordings, and in just about everything he says and does, Taj Mahal is very conscious of tradition. He greatly values his own mentors - people such as the North Carolina guitarist Etta Baker - and now, in turn, he is pleased to be a source of inspiration to younger performers such as Eric Bibb with whom he last appeared in Dublin. In many ways Taj Mahal is America's very own walking, talking, all-singing, all-dancing, musical wise man. As well as being an eternal student, he is also a touchstone, a teacher and an important source.
"All of that is very important. I mean, what are you doing here? What's your life worth if you just suck it all up through a straw? You got to make it better than it was when you came into it. Certainly amongst some of the new youngsters that are coming into the blues, the tradition is very important and my work has helped to inspire a lot of people to move in that direction. I'm very happy to have done that. But what has happened is that the corporate society and machinery that runs the six record companies which control what goes on in the States, and in a large part what goes on in the world, have a corporate line that they have to take and be a part of. But I mean, it's like selling non-nutritious hamburgers. After a while people get hungry and once they get a taste of something real they go there instead! And so the music will persevere."
Taj Mahal plays roughly 20 instruments and is said to speak five languages. He has written film scores, acted, recorded albums for children, composed a Broadway score and even provided a voice or two for cartoon characters. His most recent recording, Sacred Island, reflects his interest in Hawaiian music and brings together music with its origins in many traditions - Afro-Caribbean, Afro-American, Native American, Pacific Islander, Portuguese and other European strands. And apart from the music itself, Taj further adds that he has no particular objection to simply "hanging out" in Hawaii.
`Here's the deal. I'm always engaged in the music whether I've got an instrument in my hand or playing on a stage or working in a studio, the music is always with me. It's a part of my whole rhythmic thing and it extends into this, that and the other thing. But there are a lot of other things too. I read, I garden, I'm involved in my own neighbourhood, I'm involved in cultural things and it's a very busy life. I just jump in and get in it. And I like to support other artists who are out there because I like to see people doing well and going on to make things happen in their lives. I'm here and I'm a servant of humanity. Music is one of the greatest forces on the planet and it has propelled me all over the world."
Taj Mahal plays The Olympia Theatre Dublin tomorrow night