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INTRODUCTION
 “Blues
is my life,” says Grammy Award-winning blues singer Koko Taylor,
Chicago’s—and the world’s—undisputed Queen Of The Blues. “It’s a true
feeling that comes from the heart, not just something that comes out of my
mouth. Blues is what I love, and singing the blues is what I always do.”
And, in many ways, blues is what saved Koko Taylor’s life. Back in November
of 2003, following emergency surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, Taylor’s
condition grew even more serious. She was struggling just to breathe. Family
and friends feared the worst as she was placed on a ventilator. But her
forceful will to live, and to sing the blues again, brought her back. Slowly
but surely she recovered, and by the following spring she was back on stage
singing.
Her resurgence not only led
her back to the stage, but also led her back to the recording studio. With
her first album in seven years, the aptly titled Old School (AL 4915),
Taylor once again shows the world what she does so well. From foot-stomping
barnburners to powerful slow blues, Koko proves in an instant that her blues
are joyous and life-affirming, powerful and soul-stirring.
With Old School, Taylor
brings it all back home, supported by a band of veteran musicians and young
revivalists. Singing like she did for Chess Records early in her career,
Taylor belts out a set of material that could easily have topped the blues
charts in the 1950s, and will certainly reach the top of the blues world
today.
Koko Taylor, guitarist Criss
Johnson and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer produced Old School. Recorded
in Chicago, the 12 songs (including five new Taylor originals and songs by
Willie Dixon, Magic Sam, Lefty Dizz, and E.G. Kight) all hearken back to
Taylor’s early years in the Windy City. They range from the humorous truth
of Piece Of Man to the rocking blues advice of Better Watch Your Step to the
tough street scene of Bad Avenue (done in classic Muddy Waters style), to
Koko’s version of Memphis Minnie’s Black Rat, a song she used to sing as a
teenager. “I put my heart and soul into everything that I do,” says Taylor.
“I worked long and hard on Old School, and I want my fans to enjoy it as
much as I do.”
Live, she simply cannot be
matched in her power and raw talent. In fact, reviews of her 2006 live
performances all rave about how “The Queen” is singing better than at any
other time in her long, storied career—a career that includes singing with
Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Robert Plant
and every other imaginable legend. She’s performed in clubs, festivals and
concert halls all over the world, played for two presidents, and even lent
her voice and her likeness (as an animated bear) to the PBS children’s
television program Arthur.
Over the course of her almost
50-year career, Taylor has received just about every award the blues world
has to offer and then some. She’s received Grammy nominations for seven of
her last eight Alligator albums, and she won a Grammy in 1984 for the live
multi-artist album Blues Explosion on Atlantic Records. In 2004 she was
presented with the coveted National Heritage Fellowship Award from the
National Endowment For The Arts. She holds 25 Blues Music Awards (more than
any other blues artist, male or female). A major feather in her cap came on
March 3, 1993, when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley honored Taylor with a
Legend Of The Year Award, and declared “Koko Taylor Day” throughout Chicago.
In 1998, Chicago Magazine named her “Chicagoan Of The Year,” and in 1999,
Taylor was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall Of Fame. “There are
many kings of the blues,” said The Boston Globe, “but only one queen. Koko’s
voice is still capable of pinning a listener to the back wall.”
It is not easy being a woman
succeeding in the male-dominated blues world, but Koko Taylor has done just
that. She’s taken her music from the tiny clubs on the South Side of Chicago
to giant festivals, and continues to perform all over the world. She’s
appeared on national television numerous times and has even been the subject
of a PBS documentary. Through good times and personal hardships, Koko Taylor
has remained a major force in the blues. “It’s a challenge,” she says. “It’s
tough being out here doing what I’m doing in what they call a man’s world.
It’s not every woman that can hang in there and do what I am doing.” Without
a doubt, Koko Taylor is the preeminent blues woman in the world today. She
is—and will remain—the undisputed Queen Of The Blues.
BIOGRAPHY
 “I
come from a poor family,” recalls Koko. “A very poor family. I was raised up
on what they call a sharecropper’s farm.” Born Cora Walton (an early love of
chocolate earned her the lifelong nickname Koko) in 1928 just outside of
Memphis in Bartlett, Tennessee, Koko was an orphan by age 11. Along with her
five brothers and sisters, Koko developed a love for music from a mixture of
gospel she heard in church and blues she heard on radio stations beaming in
from Memphis. Even though her father encouraged her to sing only gospel
music, Koko and her siblings would sneak out back with their homemade
instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompany-ing on a guitar
strung wth baling wire and another brother on a fife made out of a corncob,
Koko began her career as a blues woman. As a youngster, Koko listened to as
many blues artists as she could. Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie were
particular influences, as were Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy
Williamson. She would listen to their songs over and over again. Although
she loved to sing, she never dreamed of joining their ranks.
When she was in her early
20s, Koko and her soon-to-be husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, moved
to Chicago looking for work. With nothing but, in Koko’s words, “35 cents
and a box of Ritz crackers,” the couple settled on the city’s South Side,
the cradle of the rough-edged sound of Chicago blues. Taylor found work
cleaning houses for wealthy families in the ritzy northern suburbs. At night
and on weekends, Koko and Pops would visit the South and West Side blues
clubs, where they would hear singers like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Magic
Sam, Little Walter, and Junior Wells. And thanks to prodding from Pops, it
wasn’t long before Taylor was sitting in with many of the legendary blues
artists on a regular basis.
Taylor’s big break came in
1963. After a particularly fiery performance, songwriter/arranger Willie
Dixon approached her. Much to Koko’s astonishment, he told her, “My God, I
never heard a woman sing the blues like you sing the blues. There are lots
of men singing the blues today, but not enough women. That’s what the world
needs today, a woman with a voice like yours to sing the blues.” Dixon first
recorded Koko for USA Records and then secured a Chess recording contract
for her. He produced several singles and two albums for her—including her
huge 1966 hit single Wang Dang Doodle—firmly establishing Koko as the
world’s number one female blues talent.
In the early 1970s, Taylor
was among the first of the South Side Chicago blues artists to find work—and
an audience—on the city’s white North Side. In 1972, Koko played at the Ann
Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in front of more people than ever before
(including a young Bruce Iglauer). Atlantic Records recorded the festival
(including her performance) and released a live album, which brought Koko to
the attention of a large, national audience. In 1975, Koko found a home with
the city’s newest blues label, Iglauer’s Alligator Records. Her first album
for the fledgling label, I Got What It Takes (AL 4706), earned her a Grammy
nomination. Since then, Koko’s recorded eight more albums for Alligator (and
received five more Grammy nominations) and has made numerous guest
appearances on various tribute albums and recordings of her famous friends.
She’s been in movies and on television, on radio and in print all over the
world. |
