The world of Blues lost a big star recently. On June 3rd this year the Grammy Award winning blues legend Koko Taylor passed away in her adopted hometown, Chicago, after complications following a May 19th surgery to correct an internal bleed which had caused her problems in recent years. Just this year she won her 29th Blues Music Award (Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year) a recipient of the most Blues Music Awards of any artist- male or female. This was at the Blues Music Awards held in Memphis at the Cook Convention Center on May 7th. This was only twelve days before her scheduled surgery.
She was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1935 on a sharecropper's farm just outside Memphis, Tennessee. She began singing as a teen in her church choir, as so many black female singers have but became the strongest female voice of the urban blues after she moved to Chicago in 1951 with her husband, Robert Taylor. According to Koko her first job in Chicago was cleaning homes, taking care of kids in the homes and doing the clothes, ironing and cooking. She made five dollars a day. On Saturday nights her game was music and blues specifically.
"We'd go to Sylvio's or Theresa's to see Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters. At that time I didn't know all the famous blues musicians lived here. They seemed like regular folks, country folks like me, but they were stars." She started making her mark on the Blues with the first note she sang in the Buddy Guy/Junior Wells Blues band. One evening in 1962 she was approached by Willie Dixon who was a well known arranger/composer and got her signed to Chess Records where they collaborated on several singles he produced, plus two albums. Taylor started recording with the Chicago independent label, Alligator in 1974 and the next year formed her own back-up band, The Blues Machine.
Koko's most well known songs are Wang Dang Doodle, I'd Rather Go Blind and Blues Hotel. She had a long string of hits that a lot of white blues bands also took up but she set the precedent for female blues singers that has largely never been filled. Wang Dang Doodle was her 1965 hit and her signature song. This made it possible for her to tour the U.S., Britain and Europe. In more recent years she had performed on Late Night with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, CBS's This Morning, NPR's All Things Considered and even Early Edition.
Taylor started recording with the Chicago independent label, Alligator in 1974 and the next year formed her own back-up band, The Blues Machine.
She appeared in her first film in 1970 with The Blues Is Alive and Well in Chicago. Later there was Wild at Heart, Mercury Rising and Blues Brothers 2000. She teamed up with every major Blues star including Muddy Waters at the Montreux Jazz and Blues Festival in 1972, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King and even rock icons such as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
Discography
1975 I Got What It Takes (Alligator) Grammy nominated
1975 Southside Baby (Black & Blue )
1978 Earthshaker (Alligator)
1981 From the Heart of a Woman
2007 Old School Grammy nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album
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