She may not have been a household name, even among people somewhat familiar with blues music. But true blues aficianados knew Koko Taylor as one of the ballsiest blues belters around. Think of a grittier Etta James.
The daughter of a sharecropper, Taylor worked her way up the blues echelon. Orpaned at age 11, she moved to Chicago and scraped by with menial jobs to survive. When she got older, she started to sing in the Chicago blues club and soon people were taking notice, including Willie Dixon. Dixon helped get her signed to Chess Records, and wrote her biggest hit, "Wang Dang Doodle." Her career spanned over five decades, and she did meet with some mainstream success, earning seven Grammy nominations, as well as being the subject of an excellent PBS documentary. Most of her post-Chess work was done on the great blues label, Alligator Records.
Jay Sieleman, director of the Blues Foundation based in Memphis, said of Koko: "She was still the best female blues singer in the world a month ago. In 1950's Chicago, she was the woman singing the blues. At 80 years old, she was still the Queen of the Blues."
ABOVE: Here's Koko delivering her biggest hit, "Wang Dang Doodle." The clip also features the brilliant Little Walter on harmonica. The audio is a little off sync with the video, but it is still a great clip from the period. (I love the bored looking dude sitting in the foreground at about the 2 minute mark.)
RIP Koko Taylor.
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