I REALLY am sad right now, last night before we went to Keiko's graduation ceremony, I reviewed our MySpace and read an article that had been posted by Ms. Michele at WIB (Women In Blues) It read that KoKo Taylor had passed. I immediately was saddened because I have alwaysed called Keiko 'KoKochan' (after the fact that she is brown on the outside and white on the inside, like a coconut and a mix like her Mama and Daddy!) Chocolate is made from the cocoa plant, I'm nutty in love with that baby- coconut, get it? 

I would have liked my family to have met her and for possibly for my Keiko to have sang with her or all of my kids to have supported her with our band as an honour to her. I have nicknamed my daughters the princesses of Blues- infused Rock and Soul after her, Ms.Tina Turner and Ms. Aretha Franklin just to honour these lady's. We can only Try to walk in the shadows of the lives of these great queens.

Last year, we performed at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival were we met Mr. B.B. King on his tour bus and watched him perform from backstage after our performance, but didn't get to meet her because we went on a different day. On my wish list of people to met was Mrs. Koko Taylor, Mr. King, Mrs. Bettye Levette and Mr. C.J. Chenier. We performed at a Blues Festival Kick Off Party the day she performed, seaux I hoped we'd catch up with her in the future. I guess it wasn't meant to be. I was bummed, now I am really bummed. :o(

Keiko went on to her graduation and moved on to her next realm of her young life and brought the Salinas Rodeo hall to tears with her heartfelt speech and I couldn't help but think a torch was being past on seaux many levels. One, I told her that with this graduation, she had tied me for the amount of times that I've been on a graduating stage and 2. Too bad Keiko's songs have been chosen for this years M.B. Blues festival or else I think it would have been an appropriate choice for her to have chosen Wang Dang Doodle to perform, but good luck on Mr. Murphy getting a bunch of kids in the honours band to learn that in 3.5 weeks with all of the other songs that they have on their plate. It would have been a great tribute.

It is sad when you think of the people who paved your way that you couldn't thank personal because they died so long ago, both musically and otherwise, from Harriet Tubman- Rosa Parks. But when you loose someone that close to you in time who you've never met but consider a friend-it's tough. Geauxing to her funeral would be the next best thing we could do, but Mama chopped down our money tree to make room for a vegetable garden, seaux that's not geauxing to happen.

I moved on as to not put a damper on her day, I was seaux very proud of her. But, this morning I went to Alligator Records to see if there was any new information about her and found this. I reposted it for all of our friends who may not already know to be able to read and share. 

Wednesday, June 03, 2009 “QUEEN OF THE BLUES” KOKO TAYLOR 1928 - 2009 
Category: Music

“QUEEN OF THE BLUES” KOKO TAYLOR 1928 - 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.

Survivors include Taylor’s husband Hays Harris, daughter Joyce Threatt, son-in-law Lee Threatt, grandchildren Lee, Jr. and Wendy, and three great-grandchildren.

Wand Dang Doodle tonight in her honour,

Bonjour encore GritsWorld,

Hello GritsWorld,

I wanted to share this snippet from one of my cue cards from the night of Bo-Pah's shichi-go-san Birthday Bash with y'all. I prepared longer introductions for the girls, The Dennis Murphy Band and Trusting Lucy, however, with everything that was geauxing on, I never had a chance to study ! Almost everything was cut out or cut short because of time constraints or whatever ! I tried to prepare cards, but I have a hard time with my eyes when I get hot or excited, seaux I had a hard time reading the words, I did my best ! This is one part of my intro to Bo-Pah & The Sledge Grits Band that is one of the few things I got to almost get out in it's entirety ! This was my gift on the day before Mothers Day to the most beautiful creature He has ever created. She knew I worked hard on planning emceeing for the evening and knew that I kept complaining that I had to kept cutting things out, seaux she turned on our video camera for me the next day, and had me speak my speech to her and my young'uns who were my audience :0) I was happy. For those of you that weren't there, here you geaux!

Now, I know we’re here for Bo-pah, but we would have no Bo-Pah unless a particular lady would have entertained meeting a senior highschooler after a football game in Oct. 93 ! (Cradle robber ! Is the statute of limitations up yet? Statutory !!! Maybe I can hold that over her head the next time she get’s all crane style on me ! Your right, the statute probably ended about 3 kids ago! She probably only met up with me just to make someone else jealous or something, but hey- it worked out pour moi, and she has allowed me to call her mon espouse, my wife, ever since. :0) I geaux to sleep thanking the Lord for her blessing, having the honour of calling her my ribbone. I fall in love with her again everyday when I wake up, and ask HIM how I got to be seaux lucky that she would had me every night. Baby, why don’t you raise your hand and let everybody cast an eye on you and see what I have to show off- Ain’t she something? Happy early Mother’s Day, I have to pay respects to the lady with the uterus that nurtured my baby’s in her womb for 9 full mo.’s and when they all out grew from that place, has been a Mere de Fantastique, a Fantastic Mother ever since and is all that I could ever ask for in a partner ! How did a ‘lil ghetto-kuntry boi like me ever get so blessed? The very beautiful, intelligent, gracious, benevolent- did I say beautiful? Someone keeping track? (I hope these’ll add up) Mama Sledge!

Bisous mon coeur, je t’aime !

Jour de mères heureux à vous ! Happy Mother’s Day to you!

Thank y'all,

Mr. Grits

Thank you to Monterey County Weekly for the prestigious award! We appreciate it and are very humbled by it:) We are also pleased to announce that our close family friend... Dennis Murphy, Grammy nominated-bassist extraordinaire, (who will also be performing at Bo-pah's Birthday Bash), won the Best Musician award.

Here is a copy of the article...

Best Underage Band
THE SLEDGE GRITS BAND
http://www.gritsworld.com
Six-year-old Bo-pah can barely see over her snare drum, but the Afro-sporting drummer holds down Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitious” like a studio pro. Nine-year-old Mimi equally captivates a rowdy bar crowd and a restrained City Council meeting with her soulful pipes. With this much talent so early in life, the four sisters of the Sledge Grits Band are destined for stage lights beyond local fairgrounds. The Salinas band was one of six finalists in The Early Show’s “Singing Family Face Off.” Though eliminated from the competition, we thought the Sledge sisters ate up the competition like grits.


Thank y'all again Monterey County Weekly, Best of 2009, for all of your support!!!!

-The Sledge Grits Band

Link to the original article


www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2009/2009-Mar-19/editors-picks/1/@@index