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The Taj Mahal is an enormous mausoleum complex commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the remains of his beloved wife. Constructed over a 20-year period on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, India, the famed complex is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, which combined Indian, Persian and Islamic influences. At its center is the Taj Mahal itself, built of shimmering white marble that seems to change color depending on the daylight. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983, it remains one of the world’s most celebrated structures and a stunning symbol of India’s rich history.
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628.
At his side was Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen One of the Palace”), whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.
In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra.
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Construction began around 1632 and would continue for the next two decades. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi.
In all, more than 20,000 workers from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to build the mausoleum complex.
Design and Construction of the Taj Mahal
Named the Taj Mahal in honor of Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones (including jade, crystal, lapis lazuli, amethyst and turquoise) forming intricate designs in a technique known as pietra dura.
Its central dome reaches a height of 240 feet (73 meters) and is surrounded by four smaller domes; four slender towers, or minarets, stood at the corners. In accordance with the traditions of Islam, verses from the Quran were inscribed in calligraphy on the arched entrances to the mausoleum, in addition to numerous other sections of the complex.
Inside the mausoleum, an octagonal marble chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones housed the cenotaph, or false tomb, of Mumtaz Mahal. The real sarcophagus containing her actual remains lay below, at garden level.
The rest of the Taj Mahal complex included a main gateway of red sandstone and a square garden divided into quarters by long pools of water, as well as a red sandstone mosque and an identical building called a jawab (or “mirror”) directly across from the mosque. Traditional Mughal building practice would allow no future alterations to be made to the complex.
As the story goes, Shah Jahan intended to build a second grand mausoleum across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal, where his own remains would be buried when he died; the two structures were to have been connected by a bridge.
In fact, Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan’s third son with Mumtaz Mahal) deposed his ailing father in 1658 and took power himself. Shah Jahan lived out the last years of his life under house arrest in a tower of the Red Fort at Agra, with a view of the majestic resting place he had constructed for his wife; when he died in 1666, he was buried next to her.
Did you know? According to one gruesome (and most likely sensational) story, Shah Jahan had his minions cut off the hands of the Taj Mahal's architect and his workers after the structure was completed, ensuring they would never build another of its kind.
Taj Mahal Over the Years
Under Aurangzeb’s long rule (1658-1707), the Mughal empire reached the height of its strength. However, his militant Muslim policies, including the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrines, undermined the enduring strength of the empire and led to its demise by the mid-18th century.
Even as Mughal power crumbled, the Taj Mahal suffered from neglect and disrepair in the two centuries after Shah Jahan’s death. Near the turn of the 19th century, Lord Curzon, then British viceroy of India, ordered a major restoration of the mausoleum complex as part of a colonial effort to preserve India’s artistic and cultural heritage.
Today, some 3 million people a year (or around 45,000 a day during peak tourist season) visit the Taj Mahal.
Air pollution from nearby factories and automobiles poses a continual threat to the mausoleum’s gleaming white marble façade, and in 1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered a number of anti-pollution measures to protect the building from deterioration. Some factories were closed, while vehicular traffic was banned from the immediate vicinity of the complex.
Taj Mahal in 2005 | |
Background information | |
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Birth name | Henry Saint Clair Fredericks |
Born | May 17, 1942 (age 77) Harlem, New York, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | |
Instruments |
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Years active | 1964–present |
Labels | |
Associated acts | |
Website | Tajblues.com |
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician, a singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments.[1] He often incorporates elements of world music into his works and has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, and the South Pacific.[2]
- 5Discography
Early life[edit]
Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York, Mahal grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was raised in a musical environment; his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music.[3] Early in childhood he recognized the stark differences between the popular music of his day and the music that was played in his home. He also became interested in jazz, enjoying the works of musicians such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson.[4] His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his Caribbean and African ancestry through their stories.[5]
Taj Mahal at the Museumsquartier in Vienna (Jazz-Fest Wien) in 2007
Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of other musicians from the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., was called 'The Genius' by Ella Fitzgerald before starting his family.[6] Early on, Henry Jr. developed an interest in African music, which he studied assiduously as a young man. His parents also encouraged him to pursue music, starting him out with classical piano lessons. He also studied the clarinet, trombone and harmonica.[7] When Mahal was eleven his father was killed in an accident at his own construction company, crushed by a tractor when it flipped over. This was an extremely traumatic experience for the boy.[6]
Mahal's mother later remarried. His stepfather owned a guitar which Taj began using at age 13 or 14, receiving his first lessons from a new neighbor from North Carolina of his own age who played acoustic blues guitar.[7] His name was Lynwood Perry, the nephew of the famous bluesman Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup. In high school Mahal sang in a doo-wop group.[6]
For some time Mahal thought of pursuing farming over music. He had developed a passion for farming that nearly rivaled his love of music—coming to work on a farm first at age 16. It was a dairy farm in Palmer, Massachusetts, not far from Springfield. By age nineteen he had become farm foreman, getting up a bit after 4:00 a.m. and running the place. 'I milked anywhere between thirty-five and seventy cows a day. I clipped udders. I grew corn. I grew Tennessee redtop clover. Alfalfa.'[8] Mahal believes in growing one's own food, saying, 'You have a whole generation of kids who think everything comes out of a box and a can, and they don't know you can grow most of your food.' Because of his personal support of the family farm, Mahal regularly performs at Farm Aid concerts.[8]
Taj Mahal, his stage name, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959[9] or 1961[6]—around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization, and majoring in animal husbandry and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy, Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college he led a rhythm and blues band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the U.S. West Coast, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.[6]
Career[edit]
Taj Mahal performing in 1971 (Millard Agency photo)
In 1964 he moved to Santa Monica, California, and formed Rising Sons with fellow blues rock musician Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, landing a record deal with Columbia Records soon after. The group was one of the first interracial bands of the period, which likely made them commercially unviable.[10] An album was never released (though a single was) and the band soon broke up, though Legacy Records did release The Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder in 1992 with material from that period. During this time Mahal was working with others, musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Muddy Waters.[7] Mahal stayed with Columbia after the Rising Sons to begin his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal in 1968, The Natch'l Blues in 1969, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home with Kiowa session musician Jesse Ed Davis from Oklahoma, who played guitar and piano (also in 1969).[11] During this time he and Cooder worked with the Rolling Stones, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career.[12] In 1968, he performed in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His work of the 1970s was especially important, in that his releases began incorporating West Indian and Caribbean music, jazz and reggae into the mix. In 1972, he acted in and wrote the film score for the movie Sounder, which starred Cicely Tyson.[12] He reprised his role and returned as composer in the sequel, Part 2, Sounder.[13]
In 1976 Mahal left Columbia and signed with Warner Bros. Records, recording three albums for them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers; the album shares the same name. After his time with Warner Bros., he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal and disco music.
Taj Mahal at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy, in 2005
Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981 and soon formed the Hula Blues Band. Originally just a group of guys getting together for fishing and a good time, the band soon began performing regularly and touring.[14] He remained somewhat concealed from most eyes while working out of Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision.[12] This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records during this time.
In the 1990s he was on the Private Music label, releasing albums full of blues, pop, R&B and rock. He did collaborative works both with Eric Clapton and Etta James.[12]
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In 1998, in collaboration with renowned songwriter David Forman, producer Rick Chertoff and musicians Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nile, Joan Osborne, Rob Hyman, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of the Band, and the Chieftains, he performed on the Americana album Largo based on the music of Antonín Dvořák.
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In 1997 he won Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues at the Grammy Awards, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000.[15] He performed the theme song to the children's television show Peep and the Big Wide World, which began broadcast in 2004.
In 2002, Mahal appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot and Riot in tribute to Nigerian afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. The Paul Heck produced album was widely acclaimed, and all proceeds from the record were donated to AIDS charities.
Taj Mahal contributed to Olmecha Supreme's 2006 album 'hedfoneresonance'.[16] The Wellington-based group led by Mahal's son Imon Starr (Ahmen Mahal) also featured Deva Mahal on vocals.[17]
Mahal partnered up with Keb' Mo' to release a joint album TajMo on May 5, 2017.[18] The album has some guest appearances by Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, Sheila E., and Lizz Wright, and has six original compositions and five covers, from artists and bands like John Mayer and The Who.[19]
In June 2017, Mahal appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, recording Charley Patton's 'High Water Everywhere'[20] on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[21] Mahal appeared throughout the accompanying documentary series American Epic, commenting on the 1920s rural recording artists who had a profound influence on American music and on him personally.[22]
Musical style[edit]
Description Of Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal performing at the 1997 North Sea Jazz Festival
Mahal leads with his thumb and middle finger when fingerpicking, rather than with his index finger as the majority of guitar players do. 'I play with a flatpick,' he says, 'when I do a lot of blues leads.'[7] Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed, Son House, Sleepy John Estes, Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt, and Sonny Terry. He describes his hanging out at clubs like Club 47 in Massachusetts and Ash Grove in Los Angeles as 'basic building blocks in the development of his music.'[23] Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst would come to introduce him further to the folk music of the Caribbean and West Africa. Over time he incorporated more and more African roots music into his musical palette, embracing elements of reggae, calypso,[11] jazz, zydeco, R&B, gospel music, and the country blues—each of which having 'served as the foundation of his unique sound.'[3] According to The Rough Guide to Rock, 'It has been said that Taj Mahal was one of the first major artists, if not the very first one, to pursue the possibilities of world music. Even the blues he was playing in the early 70s – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff (1972), Mo' Roots (1974) – showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with flavours that always kept him a yard or so distant from being an out-and-out blues performer.'[11] Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has 'an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry.'[1]
Taj Mahal in Niederstetten, Germany, June 2007
Taj Mahal believes that his 1999 album Kulanjan, which features him playing with the kora master of Mali's Griot tradition Toumani Diabate, 'embodies his musical and cultural spirit arriving full circle.' To him it was an experience that allowed him to reconnect with his African heritage, striking him with a sense of coming home.[4] He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali name, to drive this point home.[24] Speaking of the experience and demonstrating the breadth of his eclecticism, he has said:
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The microphones are listening in on a conversation between a 350-year-old orphan and its long-lost birth parents. I've got so much other music to play. But the point is that after recording with these Africans, basically if I don't play guitar for the rest of my life, that's fine with me..With Kulanjan, I think that Afro-Americans have the opportunity to not only see the instruments and the musicians, but they also see more about their culture and recognize the faces, the walks, the hands, the voices, and the sounds that are not the blues. Afro-American audiences had their eyes really opened for the first time. This was exciting for them to make this connection and pay a little more attention to this music than before.[4]
Taj Mahal has said he prefers to do outdoor performances, saying: 'The music was designed for people to move, and it's a bit difficult after a while to have people sitting like they're watching television. That's why I like to play outdoor festivals-because people will just dance. Theatre audiences need to ask themselves: 'What the hell is going on? We're asking these musicians to come and perform and then we sit there and draw all the energy out of the air.' That's why after a while I need a rest. It's too much of a drain. Often I don't allow that. I just play to the goddess of music-and I know she's dancing.'[5]
Mahal has been quoted as saying, 'Eighty-one percent of the kids listening to rap were not black kids. Once there was a tremendous amount of money involved in it .. they totally moved it over to a material side. It just went off to a terrible direction. ..You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don't ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down.'[25]
Awards[edit]
Taj Mahal has received three Grammy Awards (ten nominations) over his career.[1]
- 1997 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues[15]
- 2000 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Shoutin' in Key[15]
- 2006 (Blues Music Awards) Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal[26]
- 2008 (Grammy Nomination) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Maestro[15]
- 2018 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for TajMo[27]
On February 8, 2006 Taj Mahal was designated the official Blues Artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.[28]
In March 2006, Taj Mahal, along with his sister, the late Carole Fredericks, received the Foreign Language Advocacy Award from the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in recognition of their commitment to shine a spotlight on the vast potential of music to foster genuine intercultural communication.[29]
On May 22, 2011, Taj Mahal received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He also made brief remarks and performed three songs. A video of the performance can be found online.[30]
In 2014, Taj Mahal received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement award.
Discography[edit]
Albums[edit]
- 1968 – Taj Mahal
- 1968 – The Natch'l Blues
- 1969 – Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home
- 1971 – Happy Just to Be Like I Am
- 1972 – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
- 1972 – Sounder (original soundtrack)
- 1973 – Oooh So Good 'n Blues
- 1974 – Mo' Roots
- 1975 – Music Keeps Me Together
- 1976 – Satisfied 'n Tickled Too
- 1976 – Music Fuh Ya'
- 1977 – Brothers
- 1977 – Evolution
- 1987 – Taj
- 1988 – Shake Sugaree
- 1991 – Mule Bone
- 1991 – Like Never Before
- 1993 – Dancing the Blues
- 1995 – Mumtaz Mahal (with V.M. Bhatt and N. Ravikiran)
- 1996 – Phantom Blues
- 1997 – Señor Blues
- 1998 – Sacred Island AKA Hula Blues (with The Hula Blues Band)
- 1999 – Blue Light Boogie
- 1999 – Kulanjan (with Toumani Diabaté)
- 2001 – Hanapepe Dream (with The Hula Blues Band)
- 2005 – Mkutano Meets the Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar
- 2008 – Maestro
- 2014 – Talkin' Christmas (with Blind Boys of Alabama)
- 2016 – Labor of Love
- 2017 – TajMo (with Keb' Mo')
Live albums[edit]
- 1971 – The Real Thing
- 1972 – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
- 1972 – Big Sur Festival - One Hand Clapping
- 1979 – Live & Direct
- 1990 – Live at Ronnie Scott's
- 1996 – An Evening of Acoustic Music
- 2000 – Shoutin' in Key
- 2004 – Live Catch
- 2015 – Taj Mahal & The Hula Blues Band: Live From Kauai
Compilation albums[edit]
- 1980 – Going Home
- 1981 – The Best of Taj Mahal, Volume 1 (Columbia)
- 1992 – Taj's Blues
- 1993 – World Music
- 1998 – In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998
- 1999 – Blue Light Boogie
- 2000 – The Best of Taj Mahal
- 2000 – The Best of the Private Years
- 2001 – Sing a Happy Song: The Warner Bros. Recordings
- 2003 – Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues – Taj Mahal
- 2003 – Blues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj Mahal
- 2005 – The Essential Taj Mahal
- 2012 – Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal
Various artists featuring Taj Mahal[edit]
- 1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
- 1968 – The Rock Machine Turns You On
- 1970 – Fill Your Head With Rock
- 1985 – Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed
- 1990 – The Hot Spot – original soundtrack
- 1991 – Vol Pour Sidney – one title only, other tracks by Charlie Watts, Elvin Jones, Pepsi, The Lonely Bears, Lee Konitz and others.
- 1992 – Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder
- 1992 – Smilin' Island of Song by Cedella Marley Booker and Taj Mahal.
- 1993 – The Source by Ali Farka Touré (World Circuit WCD030; Hannibal 1375)
- 1993 – Peace Is the World Smiling
- 1997 – Follow the Drinking Gourd
- 1997 – Shakin' a Tailfeather
- 1998 – Scrapple – original soundtrack
- 1998 – Largo
- 1999 – Hippity Hop
- 2001 – 'Strut' – with Jimmy Smith on his album Dot Com Blues
- 2002 – Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues (Rhino) – contributing his version of 'Outskirts of Town'[31]
- 2002 – Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III – lead in and first verse of the title track, with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Alison Krauss, Doc Watson
- 2004 – Musicmakers with Taj Mahal (Music Maker 49)
- 2004 – Etta Baker with Taj Mahal (Music Maker 50)
- 2007 – Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard) – contributing his version of 'My Girl Josephine'
- 2007 – Le Cœur d'un homme by Johnny Hallyday – duet on 'T'Aimer si mal', written by French best-selling novelist Marc Levy
- 2009 – American Horizon – with Los Cenzontles, David Hidalgo
- 2011 – Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center – with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton, playing on 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee' and 'Corrine, Corrina'
- 2013 – 'Poye 2' – with Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba on their album Jama Ko
- 2013 – 'Winding Down' – with Sammy Hagar, Dave Zirbel, John Cuniberti, Mona Gnader, Vic Johnson on the album Sammy Hagar & Friends
- 2013 – Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War – with a version of 'Down by the Riverside'
- 2015 – 'How Can a Poor Boy?' – with Van Morrison on his album Re-working the Catalogue
- 2017 – Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – contributing his version of 'High Water Everywhere'
Filmography[edit]
Live DVDs
- 2002 – Live at Ronnie Scott's 1988
- 2006 – Taj Mahal/Phantom Blues Band Live at St. Lucia
- 2011 – Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center – with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton, playing on 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee' and 'Corrine, Corrina'
Movies
- 1972 – Sounder – as Ike
- 1977 – Brothers
- 1991 – Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
- 1996 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
- 1998 – Outside Ozona
- 1998 – Six Days, Seven Nights
- 1998 – Blues Brothers 2000
- 1998 – Scrapple
- 2000 – Songcatcher
- 2002 – Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- 2017 – American Epic
- 2017 – The American Epic Sessions
TV Shows
- 1985 - Theme song from Star Wars: Ewoks
- 1992 – New WKRP in Cincinnati – Moss Dies as himself
- 1999 – Party of Five – Fillmore Street as himself
- 2003 – Arthur – Big Horns George as himself
- 2004 – Theme song from Peep and the Big Wide World
Notes[edit]
- ^ abcEvans, et al., xii.
- ^Komara, 951.
- ^ abDiCaire, 9
- ^ abcTipaldi, 179–185
- ^ ab'Deep African roots help shape Taj Mahal's blues | Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly'. Straight.com. April 13, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
- ^ abcdeWhite, Billboard
- ^ abcdMadsen, 60–73
- ^ abGeorge-Warren, et al., 129
- ^Strong, 493–494
- ^Weissman, 160
- ^ abcBuckley, et al., 1050
- ^ abcdVickers, album insert
- ^Eder, Richard (October 14, 1976). 'Film: A Sequel:'Sounder Part 2' Is Gloomy and Full of Sentimentality'. The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
- ^'Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues Band'. Brudda.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
- ^ abcd[1][dead link]
- ^Supreme, Olmecha. 'hedfoneresonance'. Bandcamp.com. Bandcamp. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
- ^'Olmecha Supreme'. MusicNet.co.nz. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
- ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. 'TajMo - Taj Mahal / Keb' Mo''. AllMusic. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
- ^Cunningham, Scott (March 15, 2017). 'TajMo: Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' team up for new album'. Oregon Music News. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
- ^'Taj Mahal - High Water Everywhere, The Sessions, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four'. BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^'The Performers in 'The American Epic Sessions''. WTTW Chicago Public Media - Television and Interactive. June 6, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^''The influence of Charley Patton can not be understated ..', Part 2: Blood and Soil, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four'. BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^Weissman, 117
- ^Elam & Jackson, 301–302
- ^Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- ^[2]Archived February 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^'Taj Mahal'. Grammy.com. November 28, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
- ^'Session Laws: Chapter 19 of the Acts of 2006'. Mass.gov. February 8, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
- ^'The James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award'. Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ^'Wofford College - Commencement 2011'. Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
- ^Richie Unterberger (January 8, 2002). 'Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues - Jools Holland | Songs, Reviews, Credits'. AllMusic. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
References[edit]
- Buckley, Peter; Buckley, Joanathan (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock (3rd ed.). London, U.K.: Rough Guides. ISBN1-84353-105-4.
- Dicaire, David (2002). More Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Artists from the Later 20th Century. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN0-7864-1035-3.
- Elam, Harry Justin; Jackson, Kennell (2005). Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN0-472-09840-3.
- Evans, David (2005). The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Blues. New York City: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN0-399-53072-X.
- George-Warren, Holly; Hoekstra, Dave; Natkin, Paul; Willie Nelson; et al. (2005). Farm Aid: A Song for America. Emmaus, PA: Rodale. ISBN1-59486-285-0.
- Komara, Edward M. (2006). Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York City: Routledge. ISBN0-415-92699-8.
- Madsen, Pete (December 8, 2006). 'Mojo master (interview with Taj Mahal)'. Acoustic Guitar. 17 (6).
- Strong, M.C. (1998). The Great Rock Discography. Giunti. ISBN88-09-21522-2.
- Tianen, Dave (January 12, 2003). 'Taj Mahal a well-rounded blues scholar'. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved July 4, 2008.[dead link]
- Tipaldi, Art (2002). Children of the Blues: 49 Musicians Shaping a New Blues Tradition. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books. ISBN0-87930-700-5.
- Vickers, Tom (2003). Blues With a Feeling/The Very Best of Taj Mahal (album insert). Private Music/BMG Heritage.
- Weissman, Dick (2005). Which Side are You On?: An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN0-8264-1698-5.
- White, Timothy. 'Taj mahal: a giant step ahead of his time'. Billboard. 112.
- 'Taj Mahal'. Acoustic Magazine.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taj Mahal. |
- Taj Mahal on IMDb
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taj_Mahal_(musician)&oldid=896295385'
One of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal inspires everyone with its magnificent proportions and appearance. One of the most intriguing myths surrounding this grand edifice is that of an unfinished second black Taj Mahal. According to this legend, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan planned to construct a replica of the Taj Mahal in black marble on the opposite side of the Yamuna River.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan, in memory of his queen Arjumand Bano Begum or Mumtaz Mahal in 1631 AD, and finally completed by 1653 AD. This second Taj was to serve as the emperor’s mausoleum. The story goes that Shah Jahan even began the construction of this tomb, but left it incomplete after he was deposed and imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in Agra Fort. It is said that he spent the last few years until his death as a prisoner, gazing at the Taj Mahal from a window in the Agra Fort. After his death in 1666 AD, Shah Jahan was buried in the same mausoleum with Mumtaz.
The story has its roots in French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier’s travelogue Les Six Voyages De Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Tavernier, who visited the Mughal capital Agra in 1640 and 1655 AD, wrote that Shah Jahan had started constructing his own tomb on the opposite side of the river but was stalled because of wars with his sons. Local legends also add that Shah Jahan intended to connect the two tombs with a bridge across the Yamuna River, possibly made of silver. In the 19th century, a British archaeologist called ACL Carlleyle wrongly identified a pond for the mythical marble twin.
Research has shown that Shah Jahan asked his architects to modify the Mahtab Bagh (Moonlight Garden) built by his great-grandfather emperor Babar, to incorporate it within the Taj Mahal complex. It is suggested that this was the site of the second Taj Mahal. It is also pointed out that while the Taj Mahal was built in perfect symmetry, Shah Jahan’s cenotaph appears to be an exception. It is irregularly positioned on the western side of the burial chamber, while Mumtaz Mahal’s cenotaph lies at the centre. It is also much larger in comparison to Mumtaz Mahal’s and almost seems to be an afterthought. So did Shah Jahan never intend to be buried along with his wife?
It might seem so at first but historians have dismissed the idea of a second Taj because, except Tavernier, there is no reference to it in the other contemporary accounts of the time. Archaeological excavations on the area have also not found any trace of the construction of such a building. While ruins of black marble were found in the Mahtab Bagh, further research led to the conclusion that they were white stones that had discoloured over the years.
Nonetheless, the story has inspired many artists to create sand replicas and miniature versions of the black Taj Mahal. Irrespective of whether Shah Jahan intended to build a black Taj Mahal or not, the image of two Taj Mahals facing each other on either side of the Yamuna River continues to fire the imaginations of many.
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History Of Taj Mahal India
Since the Taj Mahal was completed in the mid-1600s, the world's most famous monument to undying love has had to put up with an awful lot of meddling mortals.In the 18th century, its bejeweled tomb was plundered, and by the 19th century, its formal garden had been lost under a thicket of trees. By the last century, the southernmost reaches of its enclosure were overrun by the teeming city of Agra.
Today's Taj has been cleaned and repaired, although work continues. Its current difficulties are more cultural than physical.
India's most iconic structure was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, a Muslim, a fact that sits uneasily in the psyche of a predominantly Hindu country.
At a time of increasing Hindu nationalism, and the rise to power of the right-wing Hindu political party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Taj has found itself on the outs.
One state legislator has labeled the Taj Mahal 'a blot' built by 'traitors.' Others have resurrected an unsubstantiated claim that it was originally a Hindu temple.
In June, a top state official and Hindu firebrand, Yogi Adityanath, questioned the Taj's legitimacy in Indian culture. Maybe somebody pointed out to him that the Taj Mahal is, if nothing else, a major money spinner in his state. On Oct. 26, he paid a high-profile visit to the mausoleum, symbolically sweeping it with a broom and describing it as 'India's gem.'
The furor seems to have passed -- the Taj is now receiving a more friendly mud-slinging, namely a cleaning with a soil-based poultice named Fuller's earth.
Ebba Koch, an Austrian scholar who has spent 45 years studying Mughal architecture, is not worried about the current attacks. 'The Taj is a power in itself,' she said.
Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to hold the body of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. Built on a terrace above the meandering Yamuna River, it took 20,000 craftsmen and laborers more than a decade to complete.
It is not the earliest or largest Mughal tomb, but it is recognized as the most beautiful, romantic and serene. As imposing as it is, the mausoleum is given a lightness by its milky marble skin and the placement of its four minarets at the distant corners of its plinth.
Black Taj Mahal History
The tomb chamber houses the emperor and his bride in highly decorated sarcophagi of marble and pietra dura, fashioned into exquisite floral patterns and calligraphy of Koranic script. The story is given added poignancy by Shah Jahan's fate. Deposed by his ruthless son, Aurangzeb, he spent his last years imprisoned in the nearby Agra fort, with a view of the Taj.
Perhaps the greatest injustice to the Taj Mahal has nothing to do with sectarian sensibilities but rather the idea that it is a single structure at the end of a reflecting pond. (Remember the picture of a forlorn Princess Diana on the bench?)
The mausoleum is the undisputed star, but the Taj complex is an enormous walled compound almost 1,000 feet across and originally more than half a mile long. It contains three other major buildings -- the mosque and the assembly hall that flank the mausoleum and an imposing portal, the Great Gate.
And yet the single biggest element of the Taj complex is its least recognized: the garden. The Mughal garden is a highly symbolic space shaped by its prescribed layout, features and allegories. It gives a foretaste of the paradisiacal afterlife.
Perhaps because their full glory seems gone forever, Mughal gardens have captured the imagination of Western garden historians like no other landscape style. I think this is also because they come the closest to fulfilling the ambitions of all gardeners, to create a version of heaven on Earth. This is why the garden at the Taj Mahal and other Mughal sites will outlive ideological assaults.
The organizing principle is a central axis, normally a narrow canal, bisected by a cross axis with a secondary channel. These waterways, originally built in Persian gardens as a way of irrigating the garden, came to symbolize the four Koranic rivers of paradise. Typically, the mausoleum or pleasure pavilion is placed at the key intersection of these canals to form the heart of the garden. The Taj, though, is set at the far end of its site, effectively making its landscape setting appear bigger and more lavish.
These four-square gardens, known as chahar bagh, create large quadrants that are further subdivided into smaller geometric planting beds or lawns (there are 16 at the Taj Mahal, for example).
The real allure of the chahar bagh is in its opposing forces, how something so sacred is also so pleasurable, which is perhaps the essence of paradise. Once the comforting order of the architecture is established, the garden becomes a playground for the senses. The water features, the chutes, the fountains, basins and canals bring delight, especially fast-moving in the Mughal's lakeside pleasure gardens in hilly Kashmir. Fruit trees abounded and the flower beds were full of tulips, irises and herbs. The scent of blossoms hung in the air, not just from damask roses but pinks, Persian lilacs and jasmine.
At the Emperor Jahangir's Kashmir garden, Shalamar Bagh, a water cascade creates a fluid curtain over niches that in their prime would have been filled with cut flowers by day, and lanterns at night, half-veiled by the tumbling water.
An English visitor to Akbar's tomb on the outskirts of Agra, in the 1600s, described its huge garden as full of fruiting trees -- oranges, apples, mangoes, bananas and figs. The square flower beds were planted with marigolds, poppies and carnations. The bounty exceeded anything he would have seen at home.
Jahangir, the son of Akbar, 'never talked about gardens as Islamic,' said Catherine B. Asher, author of 'The Architecture of Mughal India.' 'He talked about them as places of beauty and repose.'
In her quest to explore and explain the broader context of the Taj Mahal, Koch has moved beyond the Taj complex itself. In her book 'The Complete Taj Mahal,' Koch has identified the presence of 44 gardens and related structures fronting the Yumana River in Agra. They hail from the city's golden age, before the Mughals moved their court upriver to Delhi, and before the spread of modern Agra, with its environmental degradations.
The design of Humayun's Tomb, built in the 16th century, inspired the design of the Taj Mahal.
Koch sees Mughal Agra as a now-faded riverfront garden city but a utopia in its day. Its glory still can be felt at the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, but not so much elsewhere. Seven of the sites are preserved in some fashion; another seven are partly preserved, but the majority are ruined or lost. The tomb garden of a noble named Itimad-ud-Daula has been well preserved but not restored. Upriver a little, a garden was established by Mumtaz Mahal but developed by her daughter Jahanara. Only traces of its terraces remains, although its two riverfront towers are intact.The biggest threat to what is left, said Koch, is the general encroachment of the city.
And yet there is a glowing example of what can be achieved in bringing back these Mughal jewels. At Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, the vast garden complex of a 16th-century emperor has been returned to something close to its original glory. The first phase began in 1997 with the restoration of the 26-acre enclosed garden. The work will be completed next year.
In addition to restoring the massive red sandstone and marble pavilion, and its garden, the project included the restoration of 10 smaller mausoleums dating to the 16th century. The restorations have been led by the Aga Khan Development Network, whose agencies provide cultural, medical, educational and other aid in developing countries. It is headed by the Aga Khan, the wealthy, jet-setting and philanthropic leader of the world's Ismaili Muslims.
Master craftsmen used temporary ramps to lift material required for the conservation works.
For the restoration of the garden, more than 4,000 truckloads of accumulated silt and soil were hauled away by hand. Stonework for paths and waterways was reset or carved afresh with 60 craftsmen hand-chiseling more than 11,000 linear feet of sandstone edging. The work marked the first time that a Mughal garden restoration had been so scientifically informed, said Ratish Nanda, chief executive of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in India.The conservators discovered that the original garden engineers were highly skilled. The channels were built to drop just one centimeter every 40 meters. 'We could only do this with sophisticated surveying equipment,' Nanda said. 'How anybody could achieve this in the 16th century is unthinkable.' Hydraulic systems were rebuilt, and flowing water has been returned for the first time in generations, perhaps centuries. The garden has been extensively planted with period-correct flora, including 3,000 trees of 19 varieties. These include walnuts, apples, quince and pomegranate.
A total of 50 structures were restored in the 80-acre complex. The project also involved the extensive landscaping of a large city park, and improvements to housing, schools and social programs in the surrounding community.
The work has already spurred a tenfold increase in visitors to Humayun's Tomb, to 2 million annually, Nanda said. He said in another decade the site could draw as many as 8 million visitors a year, which is more than the Taj Mahal.
A new museum will explain Mughal architecture and building crafts and, according to an Aga Khan Trust for Culture news release, 'most significantly explain the pluralist Sufi cultural traditions that defined Hindustani culture for at least five centuries.'
The ideal brings poignant reminders of the salutary effect the Taj Mahal had on Western visitors, even in its 19th-century decline. In his 1899 Handbook for Visitors to Agra, H.G. Keene wrote that the Taj and its garden 'can make the whole world kin.'
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