A biography for Taj Mahalhasn’t been written yet.
“My grandparents on my father's side came to this country from the Caribbean with a strong connection to Africa and no shame about it.”
“The blues is played everywhere. There's no place I've been where they don't have blues or aren't interested in blues.”
“I haven't worn one for a long time, but I look pretty good in a suit.”
“No matter what went down, music was always going to be a part of my life. What ultimately happened is that, over a period of time, I just kind of looked around and when like, 'Wow! I'm actually making a living doing this.'”
“As a solo performer, it's total involvement. What I do is to break down the wall between audience and performer.”
“My music is really fun music, with some pan-African and pan-American influences.”
“Music is like the soul of the planet.”
“It's pretty exciting. An honorary doctorate of the arts. It doesn't get any better.”
“Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old.”
“I came up not understanding that a lot of people didn't start to hear music until they went to college or were turned on by an older brother or sister.”
“I'm perceived as someone who goes out and searches for new music, but it was all present in my household.”
“I've only been on MTV once as one of their 'Closet Classics,' with some bootleg footage of a 1970 tour I did in Holland. They didn't know what to make of my music, but they finally invented a name for it - world beat music.”
“More and more people are finally realizing that in the heart of America, there's all this incredible music that wasn't widely heard before because it wasn't in the interest of those who feel they have to control the taste of the wider public.”
“My perspective is cultural and world-based. It's always been a global perspective.”
“I pretty much move around wherever I like.”
“My grandmother had many children. She lost most. So when we came along, we were really special. I was the first grandchild that could see her spirit moving to a new generation.”