Taj Mahal
October 25, 2004
Jazz at Lincoln Center
NYC

by L.C. Marchand

Last Monday, October 25, 2004 began the second week at the new Jazz at Lincoln Center space on Columbus Circle in New York City. One might expect a venue in its infancy, but this musical Mecca has sprung open fully grown and ready to take on all comers.

First things first. The show was held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall (thanks. Fred). Imagine a luscious oval wedding cake, all differing kinds of chocolate, mocha and coffee icing; multi-tiered and inviting. Great. Now imagine yourself on the inside looking out.

The Rose Hall inspires reverence with its warm wood tones, not unlike a Cathedral. Just sitting there before the performance and listening to the mellow chatter of attendees awaiting the music I could appreciate the phenomenal acoustics; gathering the sound into the center of the Hall, hanging mid-air like a warm ball of sunshine radiating out to reach all areas in symmetrical waves. The seating is continuous around the oval, behind the stage, and up to five or six levels - the seats comfortable and spacious enough.

To those expecting specifically a ‘Taj’ concert replete with down home Delta Blues and joyous folk related music, they had a surprise coming. The show was much more than that. It was a musical and educational journey to the roots of Modern Blues & Jazz and back that was reminiscent of the Leonard Bernstein concerts I attended as a child where I learned as much about the music as I enjoyed hearing it.

The show opened with Corey Harris and Darryl Rose on guitar and Percussion respectively. Corey has studied extensively in Africa with musicians there and has brought his affinity with that musical style into his performance.

Like so much of African music with its rolling rhythms that bring up visions of waving grasslands and clean, dry heat Corey’s performance showed us where the roots of Cajun & Delta Blues comes from. There is an inherent joy to the music that is infectious and brings us along for the ride, especially in a tune titled ‘Money Eye’ as well as in a song (sung in French) that was a beautiful and haunting melody about a man singing to his ‘queen’.

The second section of the concert showcased the great piano player, Randy Weston along with Neil Clarke (from Brooklyn) on African Percussion, Alex Blake on upright Bass and Abdou M’Boup from Senegal. Abdou is a griot (pronounced gree-oh), a storyteller in western Africa who perpetuates the oral tradition and history of a village or family, who plays the Kora - a 21 string instrument that reminds one of a cross between an Irish Harp and an Indian Sitar. Altogether a beautiful sounding creature.

Randy’s set was as imposing as his stature (6’8”) with melodies than rambled like a little paper boat running downstream; ahead of you and just out of reach but compelling you to chase it; laughing like a child that is continually discovering something wonderful and magical in life. The musicians were all magnificent and all very ‘tuned in’ to each other. In this age of solo Superstars it’s so great to see cats of this stature in a groove together listening intently to each other and contributing to the whole. Nobody was trying to blow away the room with their chops. Just enormous intensity of passion being communicated expertly through the music.

In ‘African Cookbook’, Randy showed us the roots of Jazz and, probably, Flamenco coming from the Moorish musical influences of the Iberian Peninsula. In particular, Alex Blake’s Bass solo was mind-boggling and had the entire audience spellbound as we all fought between our desire to scream, applaud and shout, and the desire not to miss a single electrifying note. Finally we couldn’t stand it any longer and the house exploded with cheers and applause.

Finally, Taj Mahal took the stage with Mamadou Diabate, also a griot from Mali on the Kora. Together they continued the evening’s process of drawing not just the parallels, but the absolute connections between Africa, the Middle East and and America’s musical roots.

Taj can make his guitar sound like it’s crying, pleading, hoping, laughing. A true virtuoso as his African based rhythms intertwined with Mamadou’s haunting Kora. At times the music was based on a single sonorous note, reverberating and repeating that takes one on an innervision journey that can be very personal.

Both Taj and Mamdou displayed an innate sense of creation in their playing. Their ability to play as if every note had just occurred to them although they may have performed it many times was inspirational and made me want to take up the piano again. Both intense virtuosos complimented each other’s performance without taking away anything from the overall experience.

After Taj’s set, the audience was treated to the entire cast of characters on stage performing ‘Going up the Country Paint My Mailbox Blue’. Having both Kora players in the mix certainly spiced things up a bit and we got to see Taj in the element that he is probably best known for in this Country.

Thinking that he could leave the stage, Taj and friends made their goodbyes and exited. After over 10 minutes of standing ovation, the insistent audience got them all back on for a spectacular encore of ‘Honeybee’ - a Taj Mahal standard.

This was an ensemble evening with no particular spotlight on any one musician, but only on the music itself. Much more than a Blues & Jazz concert, this was an education in musical history that, hopefully, opened our eyes to the world musical scene and showed us where our music comes from. We can look forward to many more nights of wonder with Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Special thanks go out to Scott Thompson, Assistant Director - Public Relations for Jazz at Lincoln Center in making the evening a seamless and thoroughly enjoyable evening.