by Taj Mahal with Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965–67)
Sanctuary Publishers, Ltd.,
2001
287 pages
An interview with Stephen Foehr
The Best of Taj Mahal
Foehr explores at great length Taj Mahal’s upbringing in Springfield, Massachusetts. Born Henry St. Clair Fredericks, Jr. in a five-child household with roots extending back to a blended West Indian, Caribbean, and Africa ethnic heritage, Taj describes his successes as a function of his Caribbean-style upbringing, which prescribed hard work as essential to surviving island life. His father’s death in an accident when he was 14 also helped him develop a sense of responsibility to his family and he worked a series of farm jobs through his teenage and college years to help support his mother and siblings.
A lover of the outdoors, a gardener and fisherman, Taj pursued a degree in animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. But he dropped out after only two years as his guitar playing in the Boston region began to draw large crowds. “I sought out people whose image and energy came across as positive,” he tells Foehr to explain his inspiration, and cites Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King as great influences. He took the name Taj Mahal to identify with the spirituality of his music. Taj joined his first national band — the Rising Sons — in a musical live-in community in Los Angeles and almost immediately encountered trouble with his recording label. While the Sons were successfully opening for Otis Redding and the Temptations, Columbia Records was pushing for commercial success with a hit single. Simultaneously, Taj sought marketing and promotion support, which he believed was insufficient. Amid the complications and difficulties moving forward, the Rising Sons disbanded.
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