When I hear of the artist named Taj Mahal, I think of some indie rock band. After doing some research, I realized the high notoriety of Taj Mahal in the 60 - 80s and I decided to check him out at the Metro Square. The baby boomers among the crowd know him well as shown by all the cheerings. The trio consists of Taj Mahal as lead guitar/vocal, a bassist and a drummer. I enjoy the simplicity of this setup and the band starts the show with an upbeat bluesy tune. Mamadou Diabaté makes a guest appearance for the first song with his kora(an African harp). At times, he interjects his muscial touches well into the song but it also occasionally overshadows the lead guitar.The second and third songs are my favourite because of their very bluesy nature. Taj Mahal then progresses from the 6 strings to the keyboard where he plays a more mellow song. From then on, his songs start feeling very islandish and world music type as mentioned by the host at the beginning of the show. The bassist has done a very good job in keeping the beat of the songs while Taj Mahal solos and improvises superbly to make his guitar cry in the cool atmosphere of Toronto.
It is the second time since last night that I have seen the crowd so connected with the artist. The Taj Mahal Trio has performed an excellent upbeat show tonight which make a lot of people clapping, dancing and cheering. I am glad to learn of this amazing blues/world music artist and I will be watching out for his songs on Radio Paradise.
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