PHOTO PINGOUIN A.R.
TEXT C. MOLLON

MORE INFORMATION :
Taj Mahal's Official WebSite

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Williams, alias Taj Mahal, is Carole's big brother. He was born in New York on May 17, 1942, but grew up with Carole and the reste of the family in Springfield, Massachussets.

He learned to play the piano, the guitar, the harmonica, the tambourine, the banjo, the lyre and the bass guitar all by himself. He was attracted to the blues music through the records he was listening at home, and created his band with four other musicians (The Rising Sons), with whom he was singing the Blues classics. Then, in 1966, he started his own solo carrier, and has published many albums since then.

Taj is a peaceful and captivating musician. His musical and stage formulas are various, inventive, eclectic and unpredictable. He is a real "ethno-musicologist" of the Black music. Besides, in West Indian Revelation, he defines himself first and foremost as an Africa, then a Jamaïca, and then an American.

This singer, with his superb veiled voice, was very close to his sister Carole, and she had often worked as a chorist on his albums.

As for Taj, he carries on his brilliant carrier, regularly appearing on American and European stages.