SFJAZZ At Home On-Demand: Taj Mahal: Savoy

On-Demand: Taj Mahal: Savoy

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On-Demand

Originally Filmed on AUG 5, 2023

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› "From Savoy Ballroom to the World": SFJAZZ Dialogues w/ Taj Mahal

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SFJAZZ presents two-time GRAMMY-winning blues icon Taj Mahal. This concert, originally filmed on Aug 5, 2023, is the world premiere performance of material from his album Savoy — a jazz-inflected tribute to the music of his childhood and the legendary Harlem ballroom of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, featuring his singular interpretations of Great American Songbook classics.

ABOUT TAJ MAHAL

Two-time GRAMMY-winning blues icon Taj Mahal is the closest thing we have to an American griot. His music embraces the raw energy of field hollers, the rent-party gumption of early jazz, the urbane grooves of rhythm and blues, the church-derived cadences of soul music and the rhythms of West Africa, via New Orleans and the Caribbean.

His Summer Sessions concerts are the world premiere performances of material from his forthcoming album Savoy — a jazz-inflected tribute to the music of his childhood and the legendary Harlem ballroom of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, featuring his singular interpretations of Great American Songbook classics including “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” “Summertime,” and “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You.” The project has special meaning for Mahal — his parents met at the Savoy during an Ella Fitzgerald concert and the music of that era was the soundtrack of his early life. In his words, “I heard (the songs on Savoy) as a kid when all of those people who made those musics were alive and speaking to us through the records.”

Since his first release 50 years ago with the Rising Sons, which he founded with Ry Cooder, Taj has been a cultural force, bringing blues culture to new generations. Equal parts preservationist and visionary, Taj Mahal wields his expressive growl of a voice to conjure an era when social gatherings without live music were simply unthinkable.

Setlist, Personnel, & More

Stompin At The Savoy Benny Goodman, Andy Razaf, Edgar M Sampson, Chick William Webb
I'm Just A Lucky So & So Mack David & Edward Kennedy Ellington
Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You Andy Razaf & Don Redman
Summertime George Gershwin, Dorothy Heyward, & Dubose Heyward
Lady Be Good George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin
Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me Edward Kennedy Ellington & Sidney Keith Russell
Caldonia Fleecie Moore Jordan
I Left My Heart In San Francisco Douglas Cross & George Cory
Sweet Georgia Brown Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey (Senior), & Maceo Pinkard
I'm Confessin' That I Love You A.J. Neiburg, Doc Dougherty, & Ellis Reynolds
Mood Indigo Edward Kennedy Ellington, Irving Mills, & Barney Bigard
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby Billy Austin & Louis Jordan
Baby, Won't You Please Come Home Charles Warfield & Clarence Williams
Killer Joe Benny Golson & Jon Hendricks
One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) Harold Allen & John H Mercer
Baby, It's Cold Outside Frank Loesser
Blue Light Boogie Jessie Mae Robinson
My Baby Just Cares For Me Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson
Baby, You're My Destiny Taj Mahal
Mailbox Blues Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal guitar, harmonica, vocals
Maria Muldaur vocals
Sandy Cressman vocals
Carla Holbrook vocals
Destani Wolf vocals
Sheldon Brown saxophone, flute, clarinet
Erik Jekabson trumpet
Mike Rinta trombone
Lincoln Adler saxophone
Evan Price violin
Danny Caron guitar
John Simon piano
Ruth Davies bass
Leon Joyce, Jr. drums