Yeah.

Due to the significant roles played by Colorado's black communities, The Aaron Harber Show is honoring Black History Month with a selectio of a variety of past programs.

As is the case with all of his shows, these programs were recorded with each guest and Aaron together in studio or side by side on location.

These shows were recorded over a span of two decades.

You can also view them at Bitly.

Aaro Hyphen, PBS and Harbor TV.com.

The eclectic sample of the past guests selected for this special series include the following.

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson world musician Taj Mahal, media magnate Byron Allen, civil rights icon Joh Lewis, and General Colin Powell.

We hope you enjoy the series and the celebration of these inspirational icons who happen to be black.

This special program features one of the icons of the worlds of music and entertainment.

Taj Mahal Ta Mahal has been superbly playing guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano, mandolin, ukulele, steel drums, kalimba and many other instruments for a total of over 20 different ones.

He has been performing for over six decades, inspiring audiences of millions of fans.

His own discography includes his creation of 53 albums of his music.

Taj Mahal is the top pioneer of world music.

He has incorporated reggae, calypso, jazz, zydeco, R&B, gospel country, blues and African roots music into his works.

He has won an extraordinary number of awards, including multiple Grammys.

He also is the recipient of both the American Music Association's and the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Taj Mahal is an inspirational musician.

He is an American treasure and world citizen.

Mohamed bing bing bing bing.

Sweet on me, mama honey, be my queen.

Me o rock on my soul I'm angel, my soul.

Unbreak my soul.

Rock me my soul.

Whoa, whoa.

Welcome to the Aaron Harvey show.

Joining me, the renowned musician, on of the best known in the world, the founder of world music.

None other than Taj Mahal.

Taj.

How are you doing, Aaron?

Man, it's so great to have you on the show.

My pleasure.

Oh, it's my, I want to talk about your growing up after, you know, the territory you grew up after you were born in Harlem and western Massachusetts?

Yeah.

I want to talk a little bit about that, but, and your family life.

But, you know, being the man who brought together in the blues, Caribbean music, African music, South Pacific music.

I mean the winner of so many Grammys, the number of albums, 25 albums on your own, plus dozens of other in collaboration compilations.

Just an extraordinary crew.

When you look bac and I know you're just starting, but when you look back, I want to start with what?

What do you see when you look at that extraordinary body of work?

That's Taj Mahal.

Well, it's all still viable.

It's timeless.

People are still discovering it.

And, I'm really glad that I, took the initiative to not be at this point in my life to say, you know, I had some I had I idea to back on, from the 60s and, I'm still sorry I didn't do, I want to know about just kin of the foundation of Taj Mahal growing up.

Born in Harlem.

Moved to Springfield, Massachusetts.

Yeah, well, you know, my parents, I was lucky, every day I realized how much more lucky I was.

My mother was, an African-American woman with, some Native American background.

Born and grew up in Barnesville, South Carolina, was, college graduate 1938 from South Carolina State in the area of Earl early childhood, education.

She was a schoolteacher, a schoolteacher, and a singer gospel singer there, and also dabble in the classics.

My father, on the other hand, his family, immigrated from, Saint Kitts and Nevis down in the Caribbean, over 100 years ago.

So that put them in, to, New York City about 1904, 19 oh.

The genius.

Yeah, genius.

Yeah.

Tell me about that.

Tell me about your death.

That was pretty cool, man.

I mean, he was, classically trained.

The, the Caribbean doesn't believe that.

You should not.

You should know whatever the language is.

That is the colonial language or whatever you should know that language.

The colonial language.

You should know the king's English.

So the same thing comes to playing, music.

A lot of people are gonna look at you and say, okay, you hav you have an African background.

You know, we know you people are very rhythmic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, so it's easier for you to make music.

Well, so how do you dispel this?

Well, you know, not I play some classical music.

So if anybody wants to know when a concert starts, these guys usually play or 2 concert classical pieces.

And at that point, everybody adjusts their perspective, perspective and go head on and enjoy the rest of the music that's jumping up.

So of course, because he wanted to be a musician which was not really something that everybody was excited about.

They said, if you're going to go, you'r going to have to study classics.

And he did.

And the but he grew up in the bebop era.

So all that bebop, swing and progressive jazz and everything, we had that in the house.

And he moved on to write, being a composer, copyist, an arranger, you know, just did a lot of stuff like that in and around the band tryin to sell his songs and whatnot.

That's how I met my mom at, Savoy Ballroom in New York City.

But, he, then when the two of them got together and he sketched out the plan for their life, you know, you know, they said, well, you said, well, what what are we doing here?

And I said, would what?

You said he said he would home a good sized family.

She said, well, I'm a college girl and I'm I want to go back to college.

I'm not going to want to be tied to the kitchen sink and tied to a stove.

It's cool with him.

He said.

So she said, are you willing to work and if you want to do?

The big family said, yeah I'll have no problem with that.

He said, but the one thing I want to be able to do is keep up with the music and all the changes.

So I was born in 1942 and I don't ever remember a day till now that I haven't heard music of any kind is.

And, you know, because of that, it was like all input mostly, you know, from what my dad was playing and for what the culture was playing.

The culture was highly musical and, and hadn't come to the place of like the 60s or the 70s or even 50s where there was so much and, and, you know, so much intent on recording and getting hits out of this, you know, this culture.

It was more about the music.

Yeah it was the music and the people and the people carry the music.

And see, I was I was born young enough, when my parents were young enough.

So they were in their 30s while I was growing up.

So they still had lots of parties.

And I mean, my mother, my mother danced until she was almost 90.

When I'm all the time.

They were always going.

I mean, we lost.

We lost up, around 53, 54.

So that if she married later, she married a Jamaican man.

That's wha brought the guitar into my life.

But I'm not.

Not that it wasn't there in sound and vision and music and whatnot, but, Yeah, it was it was really good.

So I got to hear, I got a a jazz gospel, you know, classical music, West Indian music.

My dad had this incredible record collection.

You know, lucky for us at the time, you know, that all the Norman early Norman Granz jazz at the Philharmonic, you know, great stuff.

I mean, Andre Castellanos and Lily Pons and, you know, I mean, and just great music.

And then culturally, as I say to me, the culture was incredible.

You had African music, you had Caribbean music, and you had Latin music.

You had this, you had gospel, you had soul.

That was soul and hand come up and you got gospel and lots of it.

You had different kinds of gospel, you know.

And then along that time, you know, the popular music was beginning to cut slices off of this and try to create something with, you know, whateve really rock and roll in the 50s and, you know, swing and whatnot, you know, and you got to you, you got to meet and observe a lot of, of people who had, who were, had phenomenal careers musically, not necessarily financially successful.

Yeah.

But nobody nobody thought about the money.

Right?

It was the music, the musicians, you know, I mean, so you talk to Quincy Jones and Quincy some money.

You know what would talk about?

No Daggone money.

You talking about how good you could play, you know, and, you know, could you could you man up a lady up on your instrument, you know and that was it, you know, and and it was to be respected amongst that community which was violated by me.

Money.

But can you play.

Yeah.

You know and that was ultimately that's what the problem became, is that a lot of people who couldn't play, you know, but you know, that knew all the business, the business ins and outs, you know, got to be a representative.

And then they got to be a point that people imprinted on.

So, you know, the level of what the music wa went down further and further.

But yeah, I was lucky though.

Lucky.

I mean, you you trained well initially.

Well I guess a little bit on piano.

Yeah.

Not too much.

Not too much.

Clea clarinet, trombone, harmonica.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Singing really was the first one, you know, voice was my really my.

Yeah.

I say what my first instrument was it really.

It was voice.

So tell me about, your early starting in music, a band, an interracial band.

Right at one point.

Oh, most of the early bands were, the start for me band was really started when I was in, probably like high school.

And we did these, like, little duo doo wop groups and, that, that modern style of music.

But, the really the most interesting thing was that we lost dad.

A number of years later, my mother remarried to a Jamaican man who, unbeknownst to me, really wanted to be a guitar player.

And I learn how to play guitar and brought a guitar t the house that I never, ever saw till I discovered it one day.

I don't know how many years in an in a sequence of events, and the next spring, a young man moves up next door to me, a family that we know.

He and his younger brother came up from North Carolina and a conversation about what?

You know.

Well, what do you do while I play?

You play baseball?

Yeah, I play baseball.

You got a ball?

Yeah, I got a ball.

Got a bat.

Do I got a glove?

Let's go and play catch, you know, blah blah blah.

Some of it somehow or another, I don't know whether it was me or him.

Well I think it was him said, well I play guitar.

I would say, well I got a guitar.

He said, well, let me see your guitar.

Sabrina's guitar out.

And the first thing this guy tells me is, he said, you see, that string ain't right.

So he unwinds the string because it's wound.

It's wound around the string.

It takes a peg.

And because he was seven, so he said, oh, you you got a pair of pliers?

Okay.

Pliers.

Right.

So I got a pair of pliers out and we stripped that string off these.

And now that's the secret That's the secret note on there.

The.

No matter why any welcome with the wonderful sway.

The birds, the bees sweep all around was in the trees.

So no way it.

Every beach boy and kanaka in Waikiki.

She lives down Kaneohe Bay.

She lives down colony only.

Bay.

So, Toshi, how did you come up with the name Taj Mahal?

Well, late 40s and early until at the 50 zero one of the world wide icons was Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi.

And he was working at that time to dispel the people that the British had over all of India and did this successfully with, with a peaceful, real nonviolent way of doing things.

And incidentally, he became the, the, the template for the civi rights movement through Martin Luther King was Martin Luther King studied his work and which is something that don't bring up very much when you hear here in the United States.

But, Gandhi was, as a young, as a young, young youngster looking for you know, adults and people in the world that you could really, you know, kind of like, and your hang your, your, your interests up on Gandhi came into, came into view again because of my parents were educated, but not to the point of, you know, this disconnectedness from the earth.

So people like Gordy and Robeson, you know, were spoken about quite often in our household.

You know, along with Dunbar, with the incredible musicians and Josephine Baker and you name, you know, Leadbelly, on and on and on, like that feeling Josh white, you know, so as a kid, you know, looking around, see, well, what what good solid things are happening in the world.

And, you got an interes in India, got interest in the, The Jungle Book, the original one, which was, filmed the year I was born, 1942.

And, so time came to think about putting together, a name and, I don't know, somehow, I don't know.

They just kept bringing in my head that that would be a real good name.

So instead of having people just remember our name, it would make them really get would have to travel worldwide mentally.

Like, well, wait a second.

Heck, is this guy coming from MIT anyway?

You know, I just took a shot.

I stabbed in the dark to where I thought it was good, and I think I did pretty doggone good with an idea, you know?

I mean it was going to be around, like, some way or another run into or one way or another, you know, it's done.

Well, you know.

So and, and I have a huge following in India and around the world because it's help a lot of people become aware of American music, American culture styles and whatnot.

You know, as people are assimilating and, culture from, from over there you know, one consistent theme and your music is it's dance ability.

Oh, yeah.

Tell me about that.

Well, I mean, you have music for all kinds of situations, you know, I mean, that's that's.

No, no, and culturally that's that's what I've known.

I mean, one thing that I, that I, I saw that is had once a certain kind of beat becomes popular in American music.

They kind of wear it out you know, they don't understand that.

It's very, Well, I mean, what they understand is that this is making money.

So therefore it'll stay here making money, you know, and, I mean, they really do a disservice to the people.

You go to other cultures and they have so many different varieties of beats, and they're still the same simple, beautiful people that you came to really love in the first place.

And if you go back and listen to earlier music here in the United States or Cuba, you know, in Puerto Rico or where wherever, you know, you will see it through a lot of variety and particular about dancing.

And yes, there is music that's both listenable and or danceable and listenable.

And I just I just get out there and make music, you know?

But I like that.

I can't I'm not going to d something that just I'm playing and nothing's moving.

That doesn't really work for me.

No, I will play pieces that are designed for you to, to be more thoughtful in what's going on.

But there's always something moving.

And, you know, if you, if you, if you're sensitive enough or spiritual enough or whatever, you know, your music is working for you, you'll feel it.

World music.

Tell me.

I mean, you are known as the man who created the concept of world music.

Is that a fair statement?

Is that unfair?

I think it's a little a little expanded.

I mean, look, you know, my background is southern, southern Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean from the Caribbean and I think the big part of it is, as time gets on, I say, well, what is it that made you always think about that?

There was more out there.

Well, certainly than certainly hearing the music itself.

But also I think probably because of my grandparents being, part of the British Commonwealth, you're talking Greenwich Mean Time and you'r talking knowledge of the globe in terms of, knowledge of the globe, in terms of, the British Empire being everywhere.

You know, it's like Cleveland playing Miami is not the World Series, but Americans thing.

So, yeah, you know it's like Sri Lanka playing us.

You know, playing Sydney is, you know, world sport.

People are beginning to realize that, okay, we're we're actuall a big family around the world.

That's what we are.

And that's what I like about music, because music is that the language had no matter wha individual language you speak, it denotes and it's happening.

But, yeah, world music.

I mean, for me, it just is that so much of what we do today musically, popular music or whatever comes out of the experience, the African rhythm being involved as a major component inside of the music.

So, I mean, for me, I'm just reaching out to my relatives basically, and making sure that, you know, people don't mis interpret where, you know, where this energy comes from.

You know, I mean, even in Africa at this point, music is going ou and developed 4 or 500 years out here, you know, and then it comes back in.

So to the to the peopl out there who have never lived and didn't leave the development for, you know, two, three, two, three, a millennium, you know, confronted wit something that they don't quite they recognize some tenets of it, but unless you get a spokesman from it over here to say, hey, I'm.

I'm coming your way.

While you coming my way let's hook up and do something.

You know, like, cool on John.

I'm in those albums we've done, you know, with the African musicians, you know, or work with Angelique Kidjo or to Manage You by Tim Bosco Quartet.

You know, I mean, there's just so we see the familiarity in our music, but I think it's important that Americans really pay attention to that and really know, you know, what' going on out here in the world.

This is beautiful music i great music, great dance music.

You've got great subjects.

You, you know, I mean, and it' what will help us move forward.

How about kids and music?

Well, in, in, 1980s I probably asked on my first, first big connection with a big record company.

I was with Columbia Record from the late 60s until about 77 or so, and after that I sort of did some one offs.

And, I though about it, and I had been talking to some friends of mine, you know, and I always was thinking that children need to hear grown folks music, and I'm not talking about stuff that they don't need here.

They need their grown folks music.

So they have some idea of what to look for.

You know they're not afraid to grow up.

And, but a lot of people think that they should played hand to kids, and I don't think so.

That was one of the most important things that I did in the music.

And one of the things that won me a lot of awards because it was inclusive, whereas some peopl were like serving the children, you know, because they were coming up an they were playing down to them.

And that was a no, no, no, you don't want you want them looking up, you know, and, and reaching for the sky.

And, that's kind of what I did with the music made it so that if a family was a family of three, you know, a nine year old, 11 year old, and, a 13 or 14 year old girl, you know, and the parents in the front seat and the kids in the back seat, and they got like 700 mile drive.

We better figure out somethin that's going to work, you know?

And what happen is that, you know, the parents listening to the kids go, oh man, I don't want to hear that.

You know, and the kids listen to junior, if you don't turn that racket on, you know, put on a Taj Mahal children's record and everybody's singing and everybody's happy.

Yeah.

You going to find Christian blues?

You're going to find brown girl in the ring.

You're going to find, oh, what was.

That's why I'm going away.

You got to find freight train.

You'll find railroad bill.

Your song that people can sing and enjoy.

You know.

And even when when I make my own label records with the hula band and whatnot.

But, yeah, children's music, man, it's important.

It's important to include them in to what we're doing, you know?

So really, he's I did it did a lot of it was on me.

Big thing for me to do.

And I was able to, make quite a few records there at that time.

And, you know, not many of those kids are grown u and they're turning their own, their kids on to it, you know, so it never stops.

You know, Tosh, thanks so much, man.

Hey.

My pleasure.

Okay.

That was Taj Mahal.

This is Aaron Harbor.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

Next.

One of the grace of God's word to the Lord.

I live off the chiggers in my own front yard because I'm wild about my love, and I like to have my fun.

If you want to be a girl of mine, bring it with you.

Where you come.

I love you, pretty babe.

You kno I do do anything in the world.

Just to get along with you.

Cause you know I'm wild about my loving.

I like to have my fun.

If you want to be a girl of mine.

Bring it with you.

When you come.

Moon over Miami.

Moon over tombstone two.

Moon over.

Phoenix.

Baby would mean you.

Cause I'm wild by my loving.

I like to have my fun.

Everyone want to be a girl of mine.

Bring it with you when you come.

Nichols.

One of the greatest of dogs within my career.

All the chickens fat in my front yard.

Cause I'm wild about my love in.

I like to have my mind.

If you want to be a girl, I'm might breed with you when you come.

I want to be a girl I'm bang, bang with you when you go.

You don't want to be a girl of my brain with you when you come.

Hey!

Bang, bang.

Hi, I'm Aaron Harbor host of the Aaron Harbor show.

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