Best Of The Private Years, The

spite Taj Mahal having spent most of his musical life gaining a reputation as a guitar-playing ethnomusicologist versed in rural black American and Caribbean genres, his lighter side is equally as entrancing, as can be heard on this compilation of mostly covers. The only Mahal originals included are the poignant "Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes" and the raunchy, Howlin' Wolf-flavoured "Blues Ain't Nothin'". The rest of BEST OF finds this musical jack-of-all trades showing his ease at moving between interpretations of Hank Williams (a rollicking "Mind Your Own Business"), Horace Silver (the dark be-bop of "Senor Blues"), and Otis Redding (a brassy "Mr. Pitiful").
Elsewhere, Mahal's raspy delivery perfectly fires up rollicking versions of Jessie Hill's "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" and Hank Ballard's "The Hoochi Coochi Coo". Other highlights include a kazoo solo on the Washboard Sam shuffle "Sophisticated Mama", and duets with Bonnie Raitt and Etta James. On the former, Mahal hoots and howls alongside Raitt's dulcet tunes on Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford's "Need Your Lovin'". The latter collaboration also features a ballsy reading of Charles & Inez Foxx's "Mockingbird".|