A living monument

Growing up, I was under the impression that my dad only liked a few things: Garrison Keillor, The Blues Brothers and Taj Mahal. These facts narrowed the Christmas list down quite a bit, prompting me to buy my dad The Essential Taj Mahal, which, besides being a great compilation, was also the first CD I ever purchased. But even with this rich nostalgia backing my attendance to Taj Mahal’s concert at the Wilbur Theater on Feb. 24, I remained skeptical of the legendary musician’s ability to play (or at least play well) especially at the ripe old age of 69. I went in half expecting Taj to take the B.B. King approach – sitting in a chair looking almost comatose, a microphone pressed to his face as he belts out raspy note after raspy note.

With this pre-show pessimism in mind you can imagine the joy that fell upon me when the fedora wearing, Tommy Bahama-esque shirt-toting, guitar-ripping blues monster from this here Commonwealth didn’t just play wonderfully, but tore the Wilbur Theater down. Right from the very first notes of the instrumental intro that had Taj swinging his sunburst electric-acoustic guitar beside his head, strumming forcefully to produce some of the dirtiest and most distorted notes I’ve yet witnessed, the crowd was up and swaying to the heavy blues rhythm.

The energy both on and off stage was palpable throughout, so much so that it was hard to see Taj Mahal as a man past the age of 30. He swung his head in circles, gyrated his hips to the beat and meandered about the stage, stopping here and there to put his all into each plucked string, occasionally going so far as to scat along to his guitar. The lyrical delivery also shifted around to either fit with the modern era – “Checkin’ Up On My Baby” had Taj say, “Call up my baby on her cell phone” – or just to make the crowd laugh.

This humor was most prevalent during his song breaks where he would regale the crowd with silly commentary. Taj proved to be an expert front man as he threw out zingers left and right that not only were legitimately funny but also truly charming. The abundant crowd interaction ranged from telling all the ladies in the house to scream to putting up a request for either “Spooky Blues” or the unanimously more popular Grammy-winning tune “Queen Bee,” all of which helped to ground Taj from the idyllic. This was most definitely a big ‘thank you’ from Taj to his fans for all the support over his long career, a fact evidenced by the sheer number of fan favorites like “Corinna,” “Good Morning Ms. Brown” or “TV Mama,” all of which had the crowd clapping and singing along. By the show’s conclusion, I felt as I had gotten to know the music legend on a much more personal level than most others.

Jokes and musical departures aside, the trio’s performance was possibly a little too one-sided towards the band’s namesake. Sure, there were a few times where drummer Kester Smith and bassist Bill Rich interacted with each other for some choice moves or grooves, but on the whole I felt as if the two were underused. Rich’s bass certainly thumped and bumped, but he was never given a chance in the spotlight to really strut his bass-playing stuff. Smith experienced a similar lack of dynamic involvement, and although he had a couple of moves, such as ending the song by pointing a drumstick at his bandleader while Taj, after sliding his fingers up and down the keys of his large electric keyboard (one of the five instruments he played that night), pointed back, his role felt utterly replicable. Despite this, the band played well together, even if the two members felt like nothing more than supporting extras.

Although the show was quite brief, lasting only about an hour and a half, it was peppered with so much variety, humor and charm that you would be hard-pressed to find an unsatisfied patron. From the Celtic banjo jam to close out the show before the touching encore performance of “Lovin’ In My Baby’s Eyes” featuring his daughter, Diva, to his awesome, age-defying stage antics, one thing was sure – Taj has still got it, and don’t you forget it.