Taj Mahal and Sona Jobarteh

Sunday night we have two shows by two extraordinary artists.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, ethnomusicologist, and award-winning artists. His music includes elements of Afro-Caribbean music, blues, folk, hula, funk and other influences.

Taj is a living legend, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, ethnomusicologist, and award-winning artist whose music includes elements of Afro-Caribbean music, blues, folk, jazz, other influences. Quantifying his significance is impossible, but his Grammy tally to three wins and 14 nominations, and underscored his undiminished relevance more than 50 years after his solo debut. Blues Hall of Fame membership, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association, and other honors punctuate his résumé. Taj appreciates the accolades, but his motivation lies elsewhere.

I just want to be able to make the music that I’m hearing come to me -- and that’s what I did,” Taj says. “When I say, ‘I did,’ I’m not coming from the ego. The music comes from somewhere. You’re just the conduit it comes through. You’re there to receive the gift. — Taj Mahal

Listening to Taj Mahal is like being connected to the source of America music, where the raw energy of field hollars flowed into the reverie of early jazz, the grooves of rhythm and blues, the church-derived cadences of soul music and the rhythms of West Africa, via New Orleans and the Caribbean.

Sona Jobarteh

Sona Jobarteh will perform with her band. Sona is the first professional female Kora virtuoso to come from any of the West African Griot dynasties, breaking entrenched gender stereotypes that had long restricted instruction on the instrument, a 21 string African harp, to males.

This is music when you hear it, it still, to this day, carries this feeling of the empire at its greatest. You get that feeling of royalty, you get that feeling of, you know, something that you're so proud about. — Sona Jobarteh

She is dazzling. Her virtuosity and riveting joy-filled performances have brought her world-wide attention. She has appeared at the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, the SF Jazz Festival, Symphony Space in New York City, and was profiled on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in November, 2022.