Koko Taylor - Biography
BY J Poet
Grammy winning soul and blues legend Koko Taylor never set out to be singer, but since she was discovered by Willie Dixon in 1962, she’s been known as “The Queen of The Blues.” Although she’s never duplicated the commercial success of her second single, a classic rendition of Willie Dixon’s “Wang Dang Doodle,” she’s been a tireless performer. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall Of Fame in 1999, received a National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment For The Arts in 2004 and won taken home 25 Blues Music Awards, more than any other blues artist, male or female, including Best Contemporary Female Artist for 11 years running from 1980 to 1991.
Cora Koko Walton was born on a sharecropper’s farm near Memphis in 1928 and got her nickname because she loved chocolate. She started singing gospel music in church, and sang the blues with her brothers and sisters, who played home made instruments. After her mother died, Koko’s father asked her to stop singing the blues, but she loved the music she heard on B.B. King’s radio show including Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson.
In her early 20s, Koko and her future husband Robert “Pops” Taylor, moved to Chicago to find work. Pops was an amateur musician and the couple often sat in with blues performers at the clubs they frequented after work. Pops knew his wife was something special and encouraged her to start performing on her own. In 1962 Willie Dixon caught her act and was impressed. His widely quoted review of Taylor’s singing was “My God, I never heard a woman sing the blues like you sing the blues.”
Dixon produced her debut single, “Honky Tonky,” for the USA label, then got her signed to Chess. In 1966 he produced her cover of “Wang Dang Doodle,” a chart topping R&B record that went gold. He also helmed her first albums Koko Taylor (1969 Chess, 2007 Uni/Chess) which included signature tunes like “Don’t Mess With the Messer,” “I’m a Little Mixed Up” and “Wang Dang Doodle” and Basic Soul (1972 Chess). Taylor quit her day job, started her long running Blues Machine band and started touring, with Pops Taylor acting as her manager.
Taylor took advantage of the 60s blues revival and appeared at many folk and blues festivals. A live recording Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival (1972 Atlantic) captured her live, full throttle style and thrust her into the national spotlight. When Bruce Iglauer launched Alligator Records, Taylor was one of his first artists and her debut for the label, I Got What It Takes (1975 Alligator), got Taylor her first Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album.
In the 70s and 80s Taylor was on the road constantly and made five more albums, all of them won her nominations for Best Traditional Blues Album Grammys. Queen of the Blues (1975 Alligator), which included contributions from Albert Collins, James Cotton, Son Seals and Lonnie Brooks, The Earthshaker (1978 Alligator), included Taylor classics like “I’m a Woman,” “Hey Bartender” and “Let the Good Times Roll,” From the Heart of a Woman (1981 Alligator, An Audience with Koko Taylor (1987 Alligator), and Live from Chicago (1987 Alligator).
In 1984 she took part in the Atlantic records super session Blues Explosion and shared the Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy with fellow artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and J.B. Hutto and The Hawks. In 1988, Taylor’s tour van flipped. Pops Taylor died and she took a few years off to recuperate. She returned with Jump for Joy (1990 Alligator) which featured a blazing horn section and Force of Nature (1993 Alligator) another solid, soulful collection.
She continued touring, but didn’t make another album until 2000’s Royal Blue (Alligator). Her vocals still had the gritty power of a more youthful woman and included guests like B. B. King, Keb’ Mo’, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. In 2003, Taylor collapsed on stage and had emergency surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, but she was back on stage in less than a year. Old School (2007 Alligator) is just that, down and dirty Chicago blues delivered by a woman who was around when the sound was first taking shape. Alligator celebrated Taylor’s contributions to the genre with Deluxe Edition (2002 Alligator), a set with 15 or her greatest Alligator performances. Koko passed away in June 2009. She was 80 years old.
