The Pagemeister Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 CHICAGO - Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery. She was 80. Taylor died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about two weeks after having surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, said Marc Lipkin, director of publicity for her record label, Alligator Records, which made the announcement. "The passion that she brought and the fire and the growl in her voice when she sang was the truth," blues singer and musician Ronnie Baker Brooks said Wednesday. "The music will live on, but it's much better because of Koko. It's a huge loss." Taylor's career stretched more than five decades. While she did not have widespread mainstream success, she was revered and beloved by blues aficionados, and earned worldwide acclaim for her work, which including the best-selling song "Wang Dang Doodle" and tunes such as "What Kind of Man is This" and "I Got What It Takes." Taylor appeared on national television numerous times, was the subject of a PBS documentary and had a small part in director David Lynch's "Wild at Heart." In the course of her career, Taylor was nominated seven times for Grammy awards and won in 1984. Taylor last performed on May 7 in Memphis, Tenn., at the Blues Music Awards. "She was still the best female blues singer in the world a month ago," said Jay Sieleman, executive director of The Blues Foundation based in Memphis. "In 1950s Chicago she was the woman singing the blues. At 80 years old she was still the queen of the blues." Born Cora Walton just outside Memphis, Tenn., Taylor said her dream to become a blues singer was nurtured in the cotton fields outside her family's sharecropper shack. "I used to listen to the radio, and when I was about 18 years old, B.B. King was a disc jockey and he had a radio program, 15 minutes a day, over in West Memphis, Arkansas and he would play the blues," she said in a 1990 interview. "I would hear different records and things by Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Sonnyboy Williams and all these people, you know, which I just loved." Although her father encouraged her to sing only gospel music, Cora and her siblings would sneak out back with their homemade instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompanying on a guitar made out of baling wire and nails and one brother on a fife made from a corncob, she began the path to blues woman. Orphaned at 11, Koko - a nickname she earned because of an early love of chocolate - at age 18 moved to Chicago with her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert (Pops) Taylor, in search for work. Setting up house on the South Side, Koko found work as a cleaning woman for a wealthy family living in the city's northern suburbs. At night and on weekends, she and her husband, who would later become her manager, frequented Chicago's clubs, where many the artists heard on the radio performed. "I started going to these local clubs, me and my husband, and everybody got to know us," Taylor said. "And then the guys would start letting me sit in, you know, come up on the bandstand and do a tune." Taylor's big break came in 1962, when arranger/composer Willie Dixon, impressed by her voice, got her a Chess recording contract and produced several singles (and two albums) for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," which she called silly, but which launched her recording career. From Chicago blues clubs, Taylor took her raucous, gritty, good-time blues on the road to blues and jazz festivals around the country, and into Europe. After the Chess label folded, she signed with Alligator Records. In most years, she performed at least 100 concerts a year. "Blues is my life," Taylor 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." In addition to performing, she operated a Chicago nightclub, which closed in November 2001 because her daughter, club manager Joyce Threatt, developed severe asthma and could no longer manage a smoky nightclub. Survivors include her daughter; husband Hays Harris; grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements will be announced, the label said. - On the Net: http://www.kokotaylor.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Koko Taylor used to play Vancouver quite a bit in the 70's and 80's. I saw her years ago at a now defunct CAVE nightclub. Very sultury gal and a great voice. Sad news indeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Sorry to hear that.. R.I.P. Koko.. Koko with Little Walter (1967) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Sorry to hear this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pagemeister Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 (Wild At Heart) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef free Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Too bad if you never saw her live she was a powerful force of nature! Hey Pagemeister thats your 666th post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal light Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 This is how she looked when I last saw her in concert on September 1, 2001. members.jcom.home.ne.jp/bluesy/lbgallery/lb01_winans/koko RIP Koko Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pagemeister Posted June 8, 2009 Author Share Posted June 8, 2009 Hey Pagemeister thats your 666th post! Good eye. Had I known, I would have posted something in the Sabbath thread . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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