Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band - Time

Cut in 2010 and finally released in 2026, Time catches Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band in loose, generous form, a long-shelved session that sounds like it was recorded last weekend.

Taj Mahal has spent six decades treating the blues as a big, open house with room for soul, reggae and Caribbean rhythm, and the Phantom Blues Band have been his favourite housemates for much of that run. Tony Braunagel on drums, Larry Fulcher on bass, Johnny Lee Schell on guitar, Jon Cleary on keys and the horns of Joe Sublett and Les Lovitt give him a groove that never hurries and never sags.

The headline is the title track, a previously unreleased Bill Withers song that Taj turns into a mellow, swinging lope. "Wild About My Lovin'" takes a 1920s tune somewhere sunnier, with an island lilt under the shuffle, and "You Put the Whammy on Me" leans into Afro-Cuban rhythm. Elsewhere he digs into Bob Marley's "Talkin' Blues" and the Stax-flavoured "Sweet Lorene", while his own "Life of Love" opens the record with a warm, raspy grin.

It plays like a band of old friends with nothing left to prove and plenty left to enjoy. Put it on, pour something cold, and let a living legend set the pace.