Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

electric blues Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930 ...

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and

soul blues Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music. Origin African American singers and musicians who grew up listening to the electric blues by ar ...

. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals.

Life and career

Born on a farm near

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Tennessee for

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1952 with her husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor, a truck driver. In the late 1950s, she began singing in blues clubs in Chicago. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to more opportunities for performing and her first recordings. In 1963 she had a single on USA Records, and in 1964 a cut on a Chicago blues collection on Spivey Records, called ''Chicago Blues''. In 1964 Dixon brought Taylor to Checker Records, a subsidiary label of Chess Records, for which she recorded "

Wang Dang Doodle "Wang Dang Doodle" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon. Music critic Mike Rowe calls it a party song in an urban style with its massive, rolling, exciting beat. It was first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1960 and released by Chess Records i ...

", a song written by Dixon and recorded by

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B chart and number 58 on the pop chart in 1966, and selling a million copies. She recorded several versions of the song over the years, including a live rendition at the 1967

American Folk Blues Festival The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howl ...

, with the harmonica player

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning hi ...

and the guitarist

Hound Dog Taylor Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 – December 17, 1975) was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer. Life and career Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1915, though some sources say 1917. He first played the piano and ...

. Her subsequent recordings, both original songs and covers, did not achieve as much success on the charts. Taylor became better known by touring in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed a recording contract with

Alligator Records Alligator Records is an American, Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the '' Living Blues'' magazine in Chicago in 1970. History Iglauer started the label using ...

in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, eight of which were nominated for Grammy awards, and came to dominate ranks of female blues singers, winning twenty-nine W. C. Handy/Blues Music Awards. She survived a near-fatal car crash in 1989. In the 1990s, she appeared in the films ''

Blues Brothers 2000 ''Blues Brothers 2000'' is a 1998 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis from a screenplay written by Landis and Dan Aykroyd, both of whom were also producers. The film, starring Aykroyd and John Goodman, is a sequel to the 1980 f ...

'' and '' Wild at Heart''. She opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Avenue, in Chicago's South Loop, in 2000 (the club is now closed). In 2003, she appeared as a guest with

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

in an episode of the television series ''

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...

''. In 2009, she performed with

Umphrey's McGee Umphrey's McGee is an American jam band originally from South Bend, Indiana. The band experiments with many musical styles, including rock, metal, funk, jazz, blues, reggae, electronic, bluegrass, country, and folk. They have toured regularl ...

at the band's New Year's Eve concert at the Auditorium Theater, in Chicago. Taylor influenced Bonnie Raitt,

Shemekia Copeland Charon Shemekia Copeland (born April 10, 1979) is an American electric blues vocalist. To date, she has released ten albums and been presented with seven Blues Music Awards. Career Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She i ...

, Janis Joplin,

Shannon Curfman Shannon Marie Curfman (born July 31, 1985, Fargo, North Dakota) is an American blues-rock guitarist and singer. Career She came to prominence in 1999, at the age of 14, with the release of her first album, ''Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions'', whi ...

, and

Susan Tedeschi Susan Tedeschi (; born November 9, 1970) is an American singer and guitarist. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks’ and other musicians. Early l ...

. In her later years, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago, in

Country Club Hills, Illinois Country Club Hills is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb and south of Chicago. The population was 16,775 at the 2020 census. History 10,000 years ago, during a glacial period, this area was a shoreline, with a complex ...

. In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service said that Taylor owed $400,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest, for the years 1998, 2000 and 2001. In those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000. Taylor's final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19 and died on June 3.

Awards

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for

Best Traditional Blues Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011 and from 2017 onwards. Until 1992 the award was known as Best Traditional Blues Performance and was twice awarded to individual tracks rather than albums. The award w ...

, 1985 * Howlin' Wolf Award, 1996 *

Blues Hall of Fame The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...

, inducted 1997 *

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs the ...

Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999 * NEA

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's ...

, 2004 * Blues Music Award (formerly the W. C. Handy Award), 32 nominations with 29 wins in the following categories: **Entertainer of the Year (1985) **Female Artist (1981, 1995) **Song of the Year (2008) **Traditional Blues Album (2008) **Traditional Blues Female Artist (1992, 1993, 1999–2005, 2008, 2009) **Vocalist of the Year (1985) *7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Album, 2008

Discography

*''Love You Like a Woman'', November 30, 1968 (

Charly Records Charly Records is a British record label that specialises in reissued material. Among the labels whose original releases are reissued by Charly are Vee-Jay, Sun, Immediate, BYG, Tomato, and Fania. History Charly Records was founded in Fra ...

) *''Koko Taylor'', 1969 ( MCA/ Chess Records) *''Basic Soul'', 1972 (Chess) *''South Side Lady'', 1973 (

Black and Blue Records Black & Blue Records was a record company and label founded in France in 1968 that specialized in blues and jazz. Black & Blue reissued music from small American labels before producing original releases. Some of these releases were by black mu ...

) *''I Got What It Takes'', 1975 (

) *''Southside Baby'', 1975 (Black & Blue) *'' The Earthshaker'', 1978 (Alligator) *''

From the Heart of a Woman ''From the Heart of a Woman'' is a blues album by Koko Taylor, released in 1981 by Alligator Records. Critical reception ''The New York Times'' wrote: "A highlight is Miss Taylor's gritty but swinging version of the Dinah Washington evergreen 'B ...

'', 1981 (Alligator) *''

Queen of the Blues ''Queen of the Blues'' is an album by the American blues singer Koko Taylor, released in 1985. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the "Best Traditional Blues Recording" category. Production The album was produced by Taylor, Criss John ...

'', 1985 (Alligator) *''Live from Chicago: An Audience with the Queen'', 1987 (Alligator) *''Wang Dang Doodle'', 1991 (Huub Records) *''Jump for Joy'', 1992 (Alligator) *''

Force of Nature Forces of nature are literally natural phenomena. Figuratively, the term is also used to describe a thing or person that exhibits qualities which appear to be beyond outside control. Force or Forces of Nature may also refer to: Science *Fundamen ...

'', 1993 (Alligator) *''Royal Blue'', 2000 (Alligator) *''Old School'', 2007 (Alligator)

References

External links

Official website
(redirected to the Koko's page at

website) * * *
Co-host of "Blues you can use"
FM radio station WGVE 88.7,

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...

"Queen of the Blues: Koko Taylor Talks About Her Subjects"
interview by James Plath, 1994

* ttp://www.kokotaylor.com/ Wild Women Don't Have the Bluesfeatures interviews with Koko Taylor
Hoekstra, Dave. "Chicago legend and 'Queen of the Blues' Koko Taylor dead at 80," ''Chicago Sun-Times'', Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

- Daily Telegraph obituary
Koko Taylor: The Life of a Blues Legend
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Koko 1928 births 2009 deaths American blues singers 20th-century African-American women singers American rhythm and blues singers Grammy Award winners National Heritage Fellowship winners Singers from Chicago People from Shelby County, Tennessee Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee Blues musicians from Tennessee Chicago blues musicians Independent Music Awards winners Alligator Records artists Chess Records artists Checker Records artists 20th-century American singers People from Country Club Hills, Illinois People from Lake County, Illinois 20th-century American women singers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women

Life and career

Awards

Discography

See also

References

External links