Our on going mission to
educate the newer generation about where “real” music comes from. To
teach the new dogs and remind the old ones of the greats. This was the
voice of “The Queen of the Blues” Koko
Taylor We have a long time requested
song that was inspired by Ms. Taylor, "Down in the bottom." A term
used by her for many years. She helped me understand what it meant to
sing with passion! Ms. Koko, I am forever in your debt. Safe
journey home Queen!
- Kelly Bell
“QUEEN OF THE BLUES”
KOKO TAYLOR
1928 - 2009
from
Alligator Records, posted: 06/03/2009
Grammy Award-winning blues legend Koko Taylor, 80, died on June 3,
2009 in her hometown of Chicago,
IL, as a result of complications
following her May 19 surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed. On May 7,
2009, the critically acclaimed Taylor,
known worldwide as the “Queen of the Blues,” won her 29th Blues Music Award
(for Traditional Female Blues Artist of the Year), making her the recipient of
more Blues Music Awards than any other artist. In 2004 she received the NEA
National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors given to
an American artist. Her most recent CD, 2007’s Old School, was nominated for a
Grammy (eight of her nine Alligator albums were Grammy-nominated). She won a
Grammy in 1984 for her guest appearance on the compilation album Blues
Explosion on Atlantic.
Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper’s farm just outside Memphis, TN,
on September 28, 1928, Koko, nicknamed for her love of chocolate, fell in love
with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and WDIA blues disc
jockeys B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor
began belting the blues with her five brothers and sisters, accompanying
themselves on their homemade instruments. In 1952, Taylor
and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor,
traveled to Chicago
with nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz
Crackers.”
In Chicago,
“Pops” worked for a packing company, and Koko cleaned houses. Together they
frequented the city’s blues clubs nightly. Encouraged by her husband, Koko
began to sit in with the city’s top blues bands, and soon she was in demand as
a guest artist. One evening in 1962 Koko was approached by arranger/composer
Willie Dixon. Overwhelmed by Koko’s performance, Dixon landed Koko a Chess
Records recording contract, where he produced her several singles, two albums
and penned her million-selling 1965 hit “Wang Dang Doodle,” which would become
Taylor’s signature song.
After Chess Records was sold, Taylor
found a home with the Chicago’s
Alligator Records in 1975 and released the Grammy-nominated I Got What It
Takes. She recorded eight more albums for Alligator between 1978 and 2007,
received seven more Grammy nominations and made numerous guest appearances on
various albums and tribute recordings. Koko appeared in the films Wild at
Heart, Mercury Rising and Blues Brothers 2000. She performed on Late Night With
David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, CBS-TV’s This Morning, National
Public Radio’s All Things Considered, CBS-TV’s Early Edition, and numerous
regional television programs.
Over the course of her 40-plus-year career, Taylor received every award the blues world
has to offer. On March 3, 1993, Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley honored Taylor with a “Legend
of the Year” Award and declared “Koko Taylor Day” throughout Chicago. In 1997, she was inducted into the
Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame. A year later, Chicago
Magazine named her “Chicagoan of the Year” and, in 1999, Taylor received the Blues Foundation’s
Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009 Taylor
performed in Washington, D.C.
at The Kennedy Center Honors honoring Morgan Freeman.
Koko Taylor was one of very few women who found success in the male-dominated
blues world. She took her music from the tiny clubs of Chicago’s South Side to concert halls and
major festivals all over the world. She shared stages with every major blues
star, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy
Guy as well as rock icons Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
Taylor’s final performance was on May 7, 2009 in
Memphis at the Blues Music Awards, where she sang “Wang Dang Doodle” after
receiving her award for Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year.
Taken from KokoTaylor.com