I vividly remember interviewing an elated and exhausted Koko Taylor after her galvanizing performance at the Long Beach Blues Festival over 20 years ago - talk about shaking her wang dang doodle! I wish Koko only the best and am very pleased to hear her surgery went well - we have too few blues giants left as it is.
Note this superlative bio from Alligator Records (and check out their great site):
- KOKO TAYLOR, "QUEEN OF THE BLUES," RECOVERING FROM SURGERY
Grammy Award-winning 'Queen of the Blues' Koko Taylor, 75, is recovering from surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed. The surgery was performed on November 2 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. According to Dr. Angelo Costas, her primary care physician, Ms. Taylor is "greatly recovered" from the surgery. She has just been moved to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and is expected to return home by Christmas. Her doctors anticipate a full recovery. Ms. Taylor hopes to begin performing again in late winter or
early spring of 2004.
Koko Taylor's musical career spans over 40 years. From her humble beginnings on a sharecroppers' farm near Memphis to her current status as one of the greatest voices that the blues has ever produced, Taylor's story is a tale of talent, hard work, perseverance and dedication. Her soul-drenched voice and riveting stage presence have earned her fans across the globe as well as a host of accolades and awards from the blues world and beyond, including a Grammy Award and 21 W.C. Handy Awards (the highest award the blues world has to offer).
Born Cora Walton just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, Taylor was an orphan by age 11. An early love of chocolate earned her the lifelong nickname Koko. Along with her five brothers and sisters, Koko developed a love for music from a mixture of the gospel songs she heard in church and the blues and R&B songs she heard on B.B. King's daily radio show beaming in from Memphis. Even though her father encouraged her to sing only gospel music, Koko and her siblings would sneak behind their one room house with their homemade instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompanying her on a guitar made out of bailing wire and nails and another on a fife made out of a corncob, Koko began her career as a blues woman. As a youngster, Koko was enthralled by blues men and women like Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Although she loved to sing, she never dreamed of joining their ranks.
When she was 18, Koko and her soon-to-be husband, the late Robert "Pops" Taylor, moved to Chicago. Arriving with nothing but, in Koko's words, "thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz crackers," the couple settled down on the city's South Side, the cradle of the rough-edged sound of Chicago blues. Taylor found work doing house cleaning for a wealthy family in the city's plush northern suburbs. At night and on weekends, Koko and her husband would visit the clubs, hearing Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. And thanks to prodding from 'Pops,' it wasn't long before Koko was sitting in with those legendary blues artists on a regular basis.
Her big break came in 1962. After she gave a particularly fiery performance with Howlin' Wolf's band, famed blues producer/songwriter Willie Dixon approached her. Much to Koko's astonishment, he told her, "My God, I never heard a woman sing the blues like you. 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." Dixon got Koko a Chess recording contract and produced several singles and two albums for her, including the million-selling 1966 hit single "Wang Dang Doodle." That song firmly established Koko as one of the hottest female blues talents.
Article comments
1 - James
I remember in 1986 going to see Koko and her band at a small club on the campus of Northwestern University. She was spectacular and after her set, she sat at our table since I happened to be sitting with one of her friends. She was really cool and it is an experience that I have never forgotten.
2 - Eric Olsen
Great story James, thanks! It's great she is dong well.