Taj Mahal - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B) May 4th 2016

         Foto Arthur
 Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He often incorporates elements of world music into his works. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific.


Taj Mahal Trio - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B... door  morrisanddylan

Een mooie zomeravond in een zeer druk Antwerpen.Doel van het bezoek de mooie concertzaal (voorheen filmzaal) De Roma.Ik kom daar graag zag daar al mooie optredens o.a The Waterboys ,goed geluid en prima sfeer.
 Doel van de reis was deze keer het optreden het Taj Mahal Trio.Paar jaar geleden zag ik ze al in actie in De Handelbeurs in Gent ,een prima optreden en voldoende redenen voor een herhaling.


Taj Mahal Trio - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B... door  morrisanddylan

De jaren gaan tellen, ook bij Taj Mahal.Beweegt moeizaam en sinds zijn optreden in De Handelsbeurs een paar jaar geleden ook een kilootje of 10 aangekomen zo te zien.Ook zijn gitaarspel viel niet altijd mee ,natuurlijk de herkenbare klanken maar zat er af en toe toch ook behoorlijk naast.Gelukkig heeft zijn stem nog weinig aan kracht ingeboet.Wat volgende was voor mij toch behoorlijk optreden ,al waren achteraf de meningen hierover verdeelt.


 
Taj Mahal Trio - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B... door  morrisanddylan

Een optreden van Taj Mahal is een mix van  deltablues, countryblues, soulblues, reggae en carribian music. Het is ook goed te horen waar Ry Cooder door geinspereerd is ,of is het andersom?
Ook over het geluid deze avond kan gediscusseerd worden,de bas stond wat hard in de mix,dat zou in zaal ,zeker in deze akoestische setting ,beter  kunnen.


 
Taj Mahal Trio - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B... door  morrisanddylan

Ik herkende niet alle songs maar ik hoorde o.a CC Rider,Good Morning, Miss Brown(op dobro),Going Up To The Country, Paint My MailBox Blue,Honey Bee,Zanzibar(dacht ik),‘Blues With A Feeling(op piano),‘Sitting On Top Of The World,TV Mama,De toegift was She Caught The Katy (And Left Me A Mule T Ride)


 
Taj Mahal Trio - live at De Roma Antwerpen (B... door  morrisanddylan

De begeleiding werd gevormd door  Bill Rich op bass en Kester Smith op drums.
Het was zeker niet het beste concert van het jaar ,maar had toch een zeer aangename avond

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The Whites(Cheryl,Sharon and Buck),Ricky Skaggs, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, and Mark Fain at the Ryman Theater, April 5, 2016. (re-post)

Ry Cooder, the guitarist, producer and bridge-building guru of American roots music, and Mr. Skaggs, a shining paragon of bluegrass and country traditionalism, were performing under the banner of a supergroup, Cooder-White-Skaggs. The middle name in that triumvirate belongs to the Whites, a family group of longstanding renown in country music — principally Sharon White, a soulful singer and guitarist who has been married to Mr. Skaggs for more than 30 years.( NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)

nashvillehigh

It was “You Must Unload,” originally recorded by Blind Alfred Reed in 1927, during the Bristol Sessions, a watershed moment for country music. Mr. Cooder, whose history with Reed’s music runs long and deep, recast the tune as a folk-gospel trudge, in the spirit of Bob Dylan with the Band. The lyrics, which sternly inveigh against material urges, also got a playful tweak, but Mr. Cooder didn’t tinker with its message of a straight and narrow path to heaven.(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)

“About the only thing newer than 1965 in this show,” Mr. Skaggs said, “is our bass player and our drummer.” The bassist is Mark Fain, a Nashville stalwart; the drummer is Joachim Cooder, Ry’s son. (They played superbly, with buoyant ease.) Buck White, 84, the family patriarch, brought a seasoned touch to his piano playing, which rang with delicate authority, courtly but rarely ornate..(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)


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 If Mr. Cooder was its wild card, the person most likely to make a single-chorus solo feel expansive and wind-borne, Mr. Skaggs was the resident ace, firmly grounded at every turn. To the extent that there was a tension in this dynamic, it was productive and subtle. Their common language of casual virtuosity — on fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar — found traction in a repertory suitable for the Grand Ole Opry..(NATE CHINEN for The New York Times)



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 They did this for the exquisite second encore, “Reunion in Heaven,” by Flatt and Scruggs. As heavenward songs go, it was focused less on the straight and narrow than on the sweet reward — a reunion with loved ones whose earthly time had come and gone.(NATE CHINEN  for The New York Times)

                              (The revieuw is from the concert at the  Zankel Hall)