At his best (on his early Columbia LPs), Taj Mahal made music that was a wonderful amalgam of Afro-American forms. At his worst, he's sometimes been an unconvincing ethnomusicological noodler. Unfortunately, Mahal's recent records have been curious mélanges of oddly dispirited Caribbean-and African-style tunes. On Live & Direct, the artist continues his aesthetic descent.

The African-inspired songs here are slight, the Brazilian excursion sounds tired, and the funk and R&B numbers are simply not credible. Even Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Take a Giant Step," one of Mahal's signature pieces, is given cursory treatment. To make matters worse, this expensive album (almost sixteen dollars list) contains only a little over twenty-five minutes of music.

Live & Direct is the first live direct-to-disc recording by a well-known rock figure. It's too bad that the LP's sound quality doesn't mask Mahal's fundamental musical problems. Taj Mahal has become the George Plimpton of pop, skimming through all his far-flung global musical fantasies without ever really going anywhere. (RS 312)

ED LEVINE