Mastodawn

1001 Other Albums Apr 14, 2025

Taj Mahal – Taj Mahal (1968, US)

Our next spotlight is on number 305 on The List, submitted by weirdofhermiston. This beauty of an album sure is a portal into multiple rabbit holes! This is the debut "solo" album from the amazing blues musician and vocalist Taj Mahal, featuring two other brilliant musicians you either already know or are going to want to get to know: Ry Cooder (who would go onto become known as one of the greatest guitarists) and Jesse Ed Davis (who would go onto become a sought-after session artist and, a citizen of the Kiowa tribe, would be posthumously inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame). If you want to get lost in the blues, give this one a spin and go from there!

Want to read more? See the full spotlight: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/04/14/taj-mahal-taj-mahal-1968-us/

Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/ca/i/193527879 (bonus Songlink, to Davis' 1971 solo album, ¡Jesse Davis!: https://album.link/ca/i/281171592)

Happy listening!

#TajMahal #RyCooder #JesseEdDavis #JesseDavis #blues #ElectricBlues #1960s #music #1001OtherAlbums

Taj Mahal – Taj Mahal (1968, US)

A spotlight on the first “solo” album from Taj Mahal, prominently featuring Ry Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis.

1001 Other Albums

1001 Other Albums Apr 14, 2025

Taj Mahal – Taj Mahal (1968, US)

Our next spotlight is on number 305 on The List, submitted by weirdofhermiston.

Well, this beauty of an album sure is a portal into multiple rabbit holes! This is the debut “solo” album from American blues musician and vocalist Taj Mahal (a.k.a. Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr.), though it continues Mahal’s collaboration with Ry Cooder, who he previously worked with in the short-lived folk-rock group Rising Sons, and who would go onto become known as one of the greatest guitarists, particularly with his slide guitar work. The other key band member on this album is one Jesse Ed Davis, a citizen of the Kiowa tribe. While Davis had already started his musical career in the 50s, his work with Mahal seems to have brought him into the spotlight – and very rightly so! Davis would appear on the next three Mahal albums (playing both lead guitar and piano), and then would go solo himself while continuing to be a sought-after session musician, working with the likes of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, and many many others.

As for Mahal himself, this was only the first of many solo albums, and he’s still going! Next month he’ll release what I believe is technically his 28th studio album (though he has around 100 albums listed on Discogs), a collab with Keb’ Mo’ titled Room On The Porch.

If you want to get lost in the blues, give this one a spin and go from there!

#1960s #blues #electricBlues #JesseDavis #JesseEdDavis #music #musicDiscovery #RyCooder #TajMahal

The List

This is the alphabetical list (ordered by first letter of [first] artist). For the numbered list, go here. An asterisk (*) beside an album title indicates that it also appears in the 1001 Albums Yo…

1001 Other Albums