Paul Horn: Inside the Taj Mahal (1968)

Paul Horn spent the late 1950s to mid 1960s playing conventional jazz. The kind of jazz he played is what you expect in that kind of music way before “smooth jazz” and Kenny G. ever came around and made it crappy. But by the end of 1966, he flew to India to study meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (same guy the Beatles studied meditiaion with). By that point, he was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Western conventions.

A couple of flights to India later, Paul Horn made a stop at the Taj Mahal in April 25, 1968, in the middle of making a documentary that was never finished. During that night, he went in to the Taj Mahal, along with a couple friends of his, turned on the recording equipment, and this album is the result.

The album was originally released on Epic Records with its original title Inside. Later versions of this album were entitled Inside the Taj Mahal because he started recording more albums inside other landmarks (like the Great Pyramid).

The album is some really pleasant, meditative music played in the flute, letting the resonance of the interior of the Taj Mahal help. He often played a series of notes on his flute, pause for a few seconds to hear the echo (which can sound like a sustained chord) and continue on in that manner. One of the guards of the Taj Mahal also provided the voices, and in fact a couple of the songs are entirely voices, like “Mantra I/Meditation” and “Jumna”. “Unity” consists of both flute and voice. On a couple of occasions you’ll hear outside distractions, for example, a mosquito buzzing on “Agra” or the sounds of fireworks going off during a wedding a half a mile away on “Mumtaz Mahal”.

When it comes to an album that’s nothing else than flute and voice, one might think this should be a very painfully boring album, but this is not the case. The music is all very pleasant, dreamy, and meditative, you won’t find anything rocking here, and it hardly sounds like the jazz albums Paul Horn was releasing in prior years. In fact, it’s not too far off to call this album the earliest New Age recording, but I think this is miles better than any Yanni or John Tesh album. The music also has a strong ethnic bent, but that should not come as any surprise, given this was recorded in India and it reflected Paul Horn’s increasing fascination with Eastern religion, philosphy, and of course, music.

So if you fancy the thought of what it might sound like playing flute inside the Taj Mahal, and you want some meditative music, get this album,