Taj Mahal und Keb' Mo'

Strongly influenced by his gospel singing mother and jazz musician and composing father – who Ella Fitzgerald had referred to as “The Genius” – Fredericks was exposed to a genre-spanning collection of music from a young age. Despite being a talented and devoted farmer the bluesman decided to pursue his music career and moved to Santa Monica, California, U.S. and formed the band Rising Sons alongside Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid. The band signed with Columbia Records however proved to be commercially unviable so Fredericks went solo. In 1968 Taj Mahal released his eponymous debut album, introducing the musician’s stripped back traditional brand of blues.

It wasn’t long before the album became a classic and paved the way for “Natch’l Blues” also in 1968 and “Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home” in 1969. With these successes Fredericks was afforded the luxuries of working with some of the most prominent rock and blues artists, including the Rolling Stones. The ’70s represented Mahal experimenting with Caribbean themes and rhythms with “Happy Just to Be Like I Am” in 1971 and the brass-induced double live album “The Real Thing” in 1972.

After moving to Warner Bros. in 1976 and releasing the albums “Music Fuh Ya’” (1976), the soundtrack album “Brothers” (1977), and “Evolution” (1977), Fredericks moved to Hawaii to explore the island's musical tradition. After a ten-year hiatus from recording, the iconic bluesman returned with the album “Taj” in 1987, and a string of acclaimed children’s albums alongside Shake Sugaree followed. After earning a Grammy nomination in 1991 for scoring the play “Mule Bone”, Fredericks returned to his extensive recording and touring schedule on the Private Music label.

Throughout the ‘90s the blues musician covered more musical ground drifting into rock, pop, and R&B with the albums “Like Never Before” in 1991, “Dancing the Blues” in 1993, “Phantom Blues” in 1996, and the Grammy Award-winning “Señor Blues” in 1997. Fredericks subsequently collaborated with classical indian musicians to craft “Mumtaz Mahal” in 1995, and released the Hawaiian themed album “Kulunjan” in 1999. With an all-star list of guest including Ziggy Marley, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, “Maestro” was issued in 2008, followed by the Christmas album, "Talkin' Christmas" with the Blind Boys of Alabama in 2014.

Kevin Roosevelt Moore was born on 3 October 1951 in South Los Angeles, California and had an early appreciation for music, becoming a well-established guitarist by early adolescence. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he played as backup for various bands, as well as started to record music with violinist Papa John Creach through an R&B group. It was Creach who hired him to play on four of his albums giving Keb’ Mo’ his first gold album.

In 1980 he made his first release with “Rainmaker” with the help of Chocolate City Records, and then was further immersed into blues music by becoming a part of the band, Whodunit. Keb’ Mo’ followed up with “Rainmaker” with a self-titled album in 1994 on Okeh Records. In 1996 he released “Just Like You” which earned him his first Grammy Award. He then became involved in the German rocker Peter Maffay’s music collective project called Begegnungen (Encounter). In 1998 Keb’ Mo’ released his next album entitled “Slow Down” followed shortly in 2000 by “The Door.” He even released a children’s album in 2000 entitled “Big Wide Grin” which featured many of the childhood songs that Mo’ grew up with, followed by a television appearance on the popular children’s television show, “Sesame Street.” The next album he released, “Keep It Simple” in 2004 earned him another Grammy Award, followed by “Suitecase” in 2006. He went on to release his first live album in 2009.