Taj Mahal

Singer, songwriter and multi‑instrumentalist Taj Mahal will play La Maison Symphonique in Montréal on July 2, 2026. Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Jr. in Harlem and raised in Massachusetts, he emerged on the West Coast folk and blues circuit in the 1960s with the Rising Sons alongside Ry Cooder before launching a solo career at Columbia. Early albums such as Taj Mahal, The Natch’l Blues and Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home combined acoustic and electric blues with folk and rhythm and blues, grounded in rural African American traditions.

Throughout the 1970s he expanded his palette to embrace Caribbean, African and Hawaiian influences, weaving calypso, reggae, highlife and Pacific island music into his blues vocabulary. That conversation continued on later projects like Maestro, the collaborative TajMo with Keb’ Mo’, and Savoy, where jazz and early swing meet roots music.

On stage he moves between guitar, resonator, banjo and harmonica, singing with a grainy, unforced voice and offering a repertoire that links Mississippi country blues to Kingston, Accra and Honolulu. A rare opportunity to hear decades of songs and influences come together in one intimate, unhurried set.