Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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TajMo [extended]

  • Just Like You [Okeh/Epic, 1996]
  • Remember to Breathe [Elektra, 1998] Dud
  • Kulanjan [Hannibal, 1999] A−
  • Big Wide Grin [Sony Wonder, 2001] Dud
  • Hanapepe Dream [Tone-Cool, 2003] Choice Cuts
  • Get on Board [Nonesuch, 2022]
  • Room on the Porch [Sink and Stove, 2025] A
  • Time [Resonatin'/Thirty Tigers, 2026] A

See Also:

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Keb' Mo': Just Like You [Okeh/Epic, 1996]
blues, soul, and the trouble he's seen--just one big happy family ("That's Not Love," "Dangerous Mood")

Rebekah: Remember to Breathe [Elektra, 1998] Dud

Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate: Kulanjan [Hannibal, 1999]
No longer does Mahal talk a bigger African diaspora than he walks. He deserves his top billing, but every other musician on this piece of serendipity is a West African retrofitting a simple little studio in Athens GA. Like the guitar hotshot he'd have turned into Stateside, costar Diabate is a virtuoso and nothing more, and his Manding songs are mostly some kind of change. But when his kora echoes the happy-hollering "Ol' Georgie Buck" or the deep-Delta "Catfish Blues," those straightforward old blues take on a filigree Diabate's percussive confederates can go to work on. And when Mahal's piano strides beneath the balafon of a Diabate named Lasana, the rhythms canter so comically you wonder who said open sesame. A−

Keb' Mo': Big Wide Grin [Sony Wonder, 2001] Dud

Taj Mahal & the Hula Blues: Hanapepe Dream [Tone-Cool, 2003]
"Livin' on Easy" Choice Cuts

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder: Get on Board [Nonesuch, 2022]
Ry's more than Taj's tribute to Folkways-validated Piedmont bluesmen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, who the notes note were "not encoded, there was no secret race subtext to worry about" ("Hooray Hooray," "Deep Sea Diver")

Room on the Porch [Sink and Stove, 2025]
Subscriber-only review. A

Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band: Time [Resonatin'/Thirty Tigers, 2026]
Subscriber-only review. A