UCSB Arts & Lectures will present the Taj Mahal Quintet and Sona Jobarte in Campbell Hall on Thursday, February 22, at 8 p.m.
Blues legend Taj Mahal brings his voice and multi-instrumental virtuosity to a new night of world music.
Musical innovator and cultural ambassador Taj Mahal has won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Joining the Taj Mahal quartet is Gambian griot kola star Sona Jobarte. They regularly perform to sold-out crowds around the world.
Tickets are UCSB students $70 / $50 / $35 / $15. Please contact the A&L Ticket Office at 805-893-3535.
Taj Mahal traces the origins of his music to the American South, the Caribbean, Africa, and beyond, creating entirely new sounds time and time again.
A multifaceted performer, he can now play about 20 different instruments.
“There weren't that many people still playing these instruments that came from my culture,” he said. “It’s not like they didn’t exist before, but in my time, no one was playing them.
“But I wanted to hear their voices. So I watched people play, got it, sat down, remembered the music I was listening to, and listened to the mandolin or the banjo or the 12-string. So I started choosing it.”
The spirit of Jobarte's musical works stands on the shoulders of the West African griot tradition. She is considered a living archive of Gambians.
Her singing and kora performances as the band's frontman are born out of this tradition.
Jobarte founded The Gambia Academy, a pioneering institution dedicated to achieving educational reform across the African continent. The Academy is the first of its kind to offer a high level of mainstream academic curriculum while also placing students' culture and heritage at the forefront of their daily education.
For more information, visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
