Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

TAYLOR, Koko

(b Cora Walton, 28 September 1928, Memphis TN; d 3 June 2009, Chicago) Blues singer in the great female line of Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey etc but also very much Chicago style, with more than a dash of Muddy Waters. She sang in a church choir as a teenager; she moved to Chicago, and married Robert Taylor in 1953. There were club dates with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells; she recorded with J. B. Lenoir in 1963 on USA ('Honkey Tonkey'), for Spivey in '64, Checker '64-73, taking Willie Dixon's 'Wang Wang Doodle' to no. 4 in the soul chart and the top 60 pop in '66.

She had appeared in the film The Blues Is Alive And Well In Chicago '70, and subsequently several more; festival appearances included Ann Arbor (on Atlantic) and Montreux with Waters (on Chess), both '72. The fine Checker tracks '65-9 produced and mostly written by Dixon were reissued in '87 on Chess, as well as the CD What It Takes: The Chess Years '92; meanwhile she joined Bruce Iglauer's fledgling Alligator label. 'Bruce helped me as much as I helped him,' she said; 'My career didn't start until I got with Alligator.' Her first Alligator album I Got What It Takes '75 was nominated for a Grammy, the label's first nomination, and most of her subsequent albums were nominated: The Earthshaker '78, From The Heart Of A Woman '81, Queen Of The Blues '85, Live From Chicago -- An Audience With The Queen '87 (her band the Blues Machine included Michael 'Mr Dynamite' Robinson and Eddie King, guitars; Jerry Murphey, bass; Clyde 'Youngblood' Tyler, drums), Jump For Joy '90, Force Of Nature '93, Royal Blue 2000, Deluxe Edition 2002, and Old School 2007.

She won a Grammy in 1984 for her guest appearance on Blues Explosion on the Atlantic label. She won 29 Blues Music awards (formerly called the W.C. Handy award), more than anyone else; she also won an NEA National Heritage Fellowship award. 'Blues is my life,' she once said. 'It's a true feeling that comes from the heart, not something that just comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and blues is what I always do.'