Mahal stayed with Columbia for his solo career, releasing the self-titled "Taj Mahal" and "The Natch'l Blues" in 1968. His track "Statesboro Blues" was featured on side 2 of the very successful Columbia/CBS sampler album, "The Rock Machine Turns You On", giving a huge early impetus to his career. "Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home" with Kiowa session musician Jesse Ed Davis, . During this time he and Cooder worked with the Rolling Stones, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career. In 1968, he performed in the film "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus". He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His work of the 1970s was especially important, in that his releases began incorporating West Indian and Caribbean music, jazz and reggae into the mix. In 1972, he acted in and wrote the film score for the movie "Sounder", which starred Cicely Tyson. He reprised his role and returned as composer in the sequel, "Part 2, Sounder".