PORT ANGELES — The Juan de Fuca Foundation will bring two-time Grammy Award-winning bluesman Taj Mahal and his quartet to Port Angeles on Wednesday.
The show starts at 7 p.m. in the Port Angeles Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
Mahal will appear with Bill Rich (bass), Roger Glenn (vibes and winds) and Kester Smith (drums.)
Two 75-minute sets
Unlike typical performances featuring one set, Mahal will perform two 75-minute sets, JFFA Executive Director Dan Maguire said.
Tickets can be purchased at jffa.org; Port Book and News, 104 E. First St., Port Angeles; and Joyful Noise Music Center, 112 W. Washington St., Sequim. Youth tickets, for those 14 or younger, cost $10.
Budget tickets cost $20, general $30 and premium $43.
The son of a North Carolinian mother and a jazz pianist/arranger father of Caribbean descent, Mahal grew up in New York City and Springfield, Mass., and went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst during the early ’60s folk boom.
After moving to Los Angeles, he entered the Topanga Canyon Banjo & Fiddle Contest, where his bluesy clawhammer banjo style was such a contrast to reigning champion David Lindley’s flamenco-inspired excursions, the judges declared a tie.
Three dozen albums
Throughout the years, Mahal’s recorded output totals some three dozen albums in addition to soundtracks, children’s albums, several retrospectives and barrier-breaking collaborations.
Mahal has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning twice.
In 2014, Mahal was honored with the Lifetime Achievement for Performance award at the 13th annual Americana Honors and Awards. The award recognized the singer, songwriter, film composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist for “decades of recording and touring that have nearly single-handedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues via the infusion of exotic sounds from around the world.”
For more information about Wednesday’s concert, contact Carol Pope at 360-457-5411 or carolpope@jffa.org.
