The Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal 1969-1973
Columbia/Legacy
For years, Taj Mahal’s only LP to be reissued on CD was 1981’s “The Best of Taj Mahal, Vol. 1” (from 1977’s “The Taj Mahal Anthology, Volume 1”). A second volume never happened.
In 1989, 20 years after its original release, the bluesman’s third LP — “Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home” — became his first studio LP proper to be reissued on compact disc. At the turn of the century, his first, second and fourth LPs were rereleased on CD, and then Sony’s intermittent campaign stopped.
Now, “Hidden Treasures” kicks off an ongoing project that hopefully will right that wrong with definitive editions of the artist’s entire Columbia Records catalog.
Perhaps the best hidden treasure on this two-disc collection of previously unreleased studio and live recordings are the three songs from sessions in January 1971 at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, N.Y. — an extended “Ain’t Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo’),” from “Giant Step”; “Sweet Mama Janisse”; and “You Ain’t No Streetwalker, Honey But I Do Love the Way You Strut Your Stuff,” the latter two of which had never been released as studio tracks.
All three were played at the Fillmore East shows the next month that spawned the 1971 double live album, “The Real Thing,” showcasing a band Taj put together featuring four tubas.
“Ours were, as I recall, the very first real recordings made at the new Bearsville studios,” David Rubinson, who produced Taj’s first five albums, tells Good New Music via e-mail. “It was unbeleeeeevably cold — mid-January upstate N.Y. — and it snowed about 2 feet deep. … We went in looking to make a studio album of the tuba band, which had just formed.”
But said studio album was never accomplished, although the next album, “Happy Just To Be Like I Am,” featured the tuba players. “(That album was) more the Jesse Ed Davis (Taj’s longtime guitarist) band … not the “tuba band” per se. It just has some tubas,” Rubinson opines.
Another version of “Sweet Mama Janisse” is included in a quartet of songs recorded February 1970 at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami. Backing up Taj for those sessions were the Dixie Flyers (a house band under contract to Atlantic Records that included Jim Dickinson on piano) with Davis sitting in.
Rounding out CD 1 are a pair of tracks recorded in 1969 at Pacific Recording Studios in San Mateo, Calif., with Taj’s classic band of Oklahoma players Davis, Gary Gilmore and Chuck Blackwell; and a trio of songs played by just Taj, electric guitarist Hoshal Wright and bassist Eric Ajaye, produced by Allen Toussaint in 1973 at his Sea-Saint studios in New Orleans.
The entire CD 2 is arguably the second-best treasure in the chest: a complete concert from 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall, where Taj opened for labelmates Johnny Winter and Santana.
John Simon — who played piano on that European tour and later helped assemble Taj’s tuba band by bringing in guitarist John Hall of the band Orleans to fill Davis’ shoes — recalls how he came to play alongside Taj and Davis at the Royal Albert Hall in an e-mail to Good New Music:
“I first met Taj when I was producing the reconstituted Electric Flag in Columbia Records’ LA studios. (I was producing the Flag in one studio during the day and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company in Columbia’s other studio at night.) I played piano on a few tunes. We were recording Bobby Hebb’s song “Sunny,” and I was intently leaning over the piano keys during a rehearsal of the tune. When I looked up, there was Taj leaning over the piano from the other direction. I don’t remember exactly how he offered the European tour to me but, when he did, you can be sure I took the job.”
The Royal Albert Hall show is an excellent encapsulation of Taj’s various blues subgenres and skills on the National steel-bodied guitar and harmonica, providing a snapshot of where he was between “Giant Step” and the tuba band. Highlights include “Oh Susanna” and “Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day,” which wouldn’t appear on record until “Happy Just To Be Like I Am.”
Tracks
CD 1 (STUDIO)
1. Chainey Do
2. Sweet Mama Janisse
3. Yan-Nah Mama-Loo
4. Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day
5. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
6. Jacob’s Ladder
7. Ain’t Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo’)
8. Sweet Mama Janisse
9. You Ain’t No Streetwalker, Honey But I Do Love The Way You Strut Your Stuff
10. Good Morning Little School Girl
11. Shady Grove
12. Butter
CD 2 (LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL — APRIL 18, 1970)
1. Runnin’ By The Riverside
2. John, Ain’t It Hard
3. Sweet Mama Janisse
4. Big Fat
5. Diving Duck Blues
6. Checkin’ Up On My Baby
7. Oh Susanna
8. Bacon Fat
9. Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day
Total time: 2:11:05
External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store
