COURTESY OF TAJBLUES.COM

Roots of Taj

How many people these days know which throne it was that a certain King Edward gave up -- and when? Leave it to Taj Mahal to include a calypso song about that long-ago romantic tragedy on a recent album, "Hanapepe Dream," along with beautiful grass-roots renditions of local favorites "Moonlight Lady" and "Living On Easy."

Taj Mahal & the Hula Blues Band Where: Pipeline Cafe, 805 Pohukaina St. When: 7:30 p.m. today Tickets: $30 presale, $35 at the door; available at the club, Jelly's Aiea, Cheapo's Music and Comics, the Liquor Collection at Ward Warehouse, Good Guys Music, Hungry Ear, Rainbow Books and Samurai in Kapolei Information: (808) 896-4845

Taj -- somehow it just feels better than referring to him as "Mahal" -- will probably be playing all three of those vintage tunes during his four-night interisland tour this week, which kicked off last night on his former adopted home of Kauai. He brings his nine-piece Hula Blues Band to the Pipeline Cafe tonight, plays Hilo tomorrow and Maui on Sunday.

Taj was en route here from the mainland at press time, but listening to his latest album left no doubt that he's one artist whose music can accurately be described as "world music." True, the term is often used as a catch-all for almost anything that seems be "third world" in origins, but in this case the term describes a blending of cultures and musical influences that ends up being fresh and nonspecific.

The American standard "Stagger Lee" takes on Caribbean shadings, without it sounding like a Jawaiian rip-off of the song that Lloyd Price popularized in the late 1950s. "Baby You're My Destiny" has the vibe of the Roaring '20s, but doesn't belittle the conventions of the earlier era. And then there's Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," which Taj transforms with an arrangement that emphasizes ukulele and saxophone.

"I walk with the energy of music every day. I don't have to turn it on to hear it play," Taj explains on his Web site at tajblues.com.

"There is a lot of music that people do not get to hear, and it's unfortunate. It's because of marketing and the fact that somebody (at the record company) says you won't like this. But the people who come hear me get to hear everything I know about."

COURTESY OF TAJBLUES.COM Taj Mahal's doing an interisland tour with his Hula Blues band, pictured here.

IT HELPS perhaps that the man born Henry St. Claire Fredericks grew up in a home where he was encouraged to be proud of his Caribbean-American roots, while listening to his father's record collection and whatever outside music a shortwave radio could pick up.

Formal piano lessons didn't last long, but Taj eventually learned to play the keyboard instrument. He also took up the clarinet, harmonica, trombone and guitar, learned as much as he could about the origin of the various types of music he was singing and playing, and eventually transformed himself into Taj Mahal while attending the University of Massachusetts in the early 1960s.

His musical education continued when he moved to Los Angeles and formed the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, Ed Cassidy, Jesse Lee Kinkaid, Gary Marker and Kevin Kelly. He then established himself as a recording artist with Columbia with his self-titled debut, "The Natch'l Blues" and "Giant Steps/De Ole Folks At Home" in the late 1960s. (You can see a bit of Taj's earlier performances in a segment from the memorable "Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus," now out on DVD.)

Since then, his musical odyssey has included a working vacation in Spain, a discography of over 40 albums, numerous guest spots on other artists' albums, several Grammy Awards, productive cross-cultural projects with like-minded musicians from many parts of the world, and, finally, the founding of his own independent record label.

Among his future projects are completing an album he recorded in Zanzibar with East African musicians, additional work with North African musicians exploring the deeper roots of the blues, concerts in Costa Rica with Bill Rich (bass) and Kester Smith (drums), and even some tuba band music.

"I didn't want to fall into the trap of complacency," Taj says of his early curiosity. "I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean. I wanted to explore the connections between different kinds of music.

"In the end, ultimately, the music plays you, you don't play the music."