Taj Mahal Quartet At Miner Auditorium

Taj Mahal Quartet
Miner Auditorium
San Francisco, CA
August 16, 2025

The sold-out Sunday afternoon performance closed a four-concert SFJAZZ residency with a reminder that Taj Mahal keeps tradition not just intact, but in motion. The 83-year-old bandleader entered to Bunji Garlin's "Differentology (Ready for the Road)," clapping in a straw hat and patterned jacket, then settled amid a semicircle of instruments—three guitars, a six-string banjo, and an eight-string ukulele. "We're the musicians, you're the audience...we are both here to communicate back and forth," he told the crowd, setting the tone for the interactive 95 minutes that followed.

The quartet—Taj Mahal on vocals and strings, Bill Rich on electric bass, Trinidadian drummer Tony D, and keyboardist Jim Pugh—moved with unforced assurance. Pugh shifted between Hammond B-3 and Roland, answering Mahal's phrases with greasy smears or spare fills as needed. Rich and Tony D kept a buoyant pocket that welcomed the island inflections threaded through the set. For this date only, percussionist Joey Torres added sheen without crowding the groove. Many of the songs were staples Taj has reshaped over decades, now tilted toward Caribbean sway or New Orleans strut; none felt museum-polished. They felt lived in.

"Stagger Lee" was the afternoon's most finely drawn story. Mahal split the narrative into two distinct voices—one low and ominous, the other gruff and needling—making character a function of timbre as much as text. On a Tricone resonator guitar, he took two concise breaks: first, wiry single-note lines; then, thumb-led chord snaps with quick pull-offs. Pugh's B-3 answer deepened the air without slowing the tempo. Mahal eased the final chorus, clipped the cadence tight, and let a beat of silence land before the room erupted.

The personal asides mattered. A shouted "We love you, Taj!" drew back a grin—"I love you more, but can you cook? Can you bake?"—and a brief origin story about finding a hidden guitar in a hall closet as a teenager. He also highlighted the thread of sea songs—"Fishing Blues," "When I Feel the Sea Beneath My Soul," and "Sailin' Into Walker's Cay"—noting the last was sparked by a fishing-magazine article. Those connections made clear how curiosity continues to feed his catalog.

Throughout, the internal conversation never flagged. Pugh colored the slow blues with economical left-hand stabs and right-hand curls; on mid-tempo shuffles, he opened the Leslie just enough to add motion without blur. Rich answered sung lines with rising figures that kept the time buoyant. Tony D's feel—light at the front edge, anchored at the back—gave the quartet room to breathe and dance. Balance was the point.

"Take a Giant Step" changed the scale of the room. With only acoustic guitar and vocals out front, Mahal treated the melody like a conversation with an old friend, letting phrases bloom on the back halves of bars. Rich's bass floated in long tones that carried their own vocal shape while Tony D lifted the time with brushes and cross-stick nudges. The chorus became a quiet sing-back—invited, not staged—and the song's promise felt newly earned.

The closer, "Everybody Is Somebody," sealed the residency in communal uplift. The groove sat between shuffle and soca, a subtle nod to the Caribbean pulse running through the afternoon. Mahal rode on top of the beat, preaching more than pleading, while Joey T's percussion pressed the back end of the chorus. Pugh's organ swells framed Mahal's final ad-libs; when the last hit landed, the audience was on its feet. Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers' "Bustin' Loose" blasted over the PA as the band bowed and danced off in a conga line. No encore—because none was needed.

Throughout, the internal conversation never flagged. Pugh colored the slow blues with economical left-hand stabs and right-hand curls; on laid-back shuffles, he opened the Leslie just enough to add motion without blur. Rich answered sung lines with rising figures that kept the time buoyant. Tony D's feel—light at the front edge, anchored at the back—gave the quartet room to breathe and dance. Balance was the point.

For longtime listeners, the set affirmed how Taj Mahal stretches the frame without breaking it. For new listeners, it offered a warm entry into a vast songbook—one that now carries the Recording Academy's 2025 Lifetime Achievement recognition and a home base just across the Bay in Berkeley. The message from the opening minutes held true at the end: the audience is part of the performance, and in this sold-out room, that bond held fast.

Setlist: "Wild About My Lovin,'" "Cakewalk Into Town," "Betty & Dupree," "Fishing Blues," "Queen Bee," "Stagger Lee," "Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes," "Tom and Sally Drake," "Sailin' Into Walker's Cay," "See See Rider Blues," "When I Feel the Sea Beneath My Soul," "Take a Giant Step," "Everybody Is Somebody."

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