Koko Taylor

“Blues is my life,” says Koko Taylor, Chicago’s — and the world’s — undisputed Queen of the Blues. “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.” Indeed, on her first album in seven years, the aptly titled Royal Blue (AL 4873), Grammy Award-winner Koko 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. “My blues isn’t designed for people to look down, but for people to get up and dance,” says Koko. People magazine described Koko’s blues as “foot-stomping music that’s rough, raw and wonderfully upbeat.”

Criss Johnson, Koko Taylor, and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer produced Royal Blue. Recorded in Chicago, the 12 songs (including four Koko originals) range from the rocking blues advice of Save Your Breath to the humorous warning in Don’t Let Me Catch You (With Your Drawers Down) to the final bit of wisdom in Keep Your Mouth Shut And Your Eyes Wide Open. In between, guest B.B. King joins Koko on Blues Hotel, guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd helps Koko reinvent Melissa Etheridge’s Bring Me Some Water, pianist Johnnie Johnson adds his magic to Ray Charles’ But On The Other Hand, and Keb’ Mo’ and Koko stroll together through the warm and tender The Man Next Door. Royal Blue is Koko Taylor at her very best. “I put my heart and soul into everything that I do,” says Taylor. “I worked long and hard on Royal Blue, and I want my fans to enjoy it as much as I do.”

Over the course of her almost 40-year career, Taylor has received just about every award the blues world has to offer and then some. She has won 19 W.C. Handy Awards (more than any other female blues artist). She’s received Grammy nominations for six of her last seven Alligator albums, and won a Grammy in 1984. 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 Blues Hall Of Fame. Rolling Stone called her “the great female blues singer of her generation.”

And the long list of achievements continues. Koko made her silver screen debut in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart, and also appeared in Mercury Rising and Blues Brothers 2000. She performed at both the Bush and Clinton inauguration parties, appeared on Late Night With David Letterman (back in the NBC days), and a few years later, Late Night With Conan O’Brien. She’s been featured on CBS-TV’s This Morning, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, CBS-TV’s Early Edition, FOX-TV’s New York Undercover and countless regional television news programs. People, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and Life are just some of the national publications to have recently run features and reviews on Koko. Living Blues featured Koko in a 12-page cover story, and Blues Revue ran a major story just last year.

Taylor continues to play over 100 concerts a year all over the world. She has shared stages with every major blues act during the course of her career, from Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf to B.B. King and Buddy Guy as well as major rock stars like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. When the Chicago Tribune referred to her as “the hardest working woman in show business,” they were not exaggerating. Taylor recently opened her own club in Chicago (Koko Taylor’s Celebrity at 1233 S. Wabash), has toured Europe countless times, will be headed to Portugal and England later this year, and, on top of headlining the Chicago Blues Festival on June 10, 2000, she’ll tour with Buddy Guy and B.B. King later in the summer. Besides being the title of her new album, Royal Blue fittingly describes both Koko Taylor and the regal energy and power of her music. “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 a back wall.”

“I come from a poor family,” recalls Koko Taylor. “A very poor family. I was raised up on what they call a sharecropper’s farm.” Born Cora Walton just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, Koko 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 songs she heard in church and 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 out back with their homemade instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompanying on a guitar made out of bailing wire and nails and one 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. Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith 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 18, Koko and her soon-to-be husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, moved to Chicago to look for work. With nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz crackers,” the couple set up house on the city’s South Side, the cradle of the rough-edged sound of Chicago blues. Taylor found work cleaning house for a wealthy couple in the ritzy northern suburbs. At night and on weekends, Koko and Pops would visit the various clubs, where they would hear singers like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. And thanks to prodding from Pops, it wasn’t long before Taylor was sitting in with many of the most legendary blues bands on a regular basis.

Taylor’s big break came in 1962. After a particularly fiery performance, arranger/ composer 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 got Koko a Chess recording contract and produced several singles (and two albums) for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, Wang Dang Doodle. That song firmly established 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 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 seven 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.

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 around 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 today.” Indeed, Koko Taylor is the preeminent blues woman in the world. And that’s why she is – and will remain – the undisputed Queen Of The Blues.