Taylor, Koko

September 28, 1935

The 1920s witnessed the musical ascendance of black women blues artists. Mamie Smith's 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues" ushered in the "classic blues" era, facilitating the recording industry's entree into an untapped black market. Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Sippie Wallace, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and many others actively toured and recorded throughout the decade. However, the 1929 stock market crash marked a turn in recording company priorities. Country blues, performed by black men, moved to the forefront. The lower cost of scouting and recording a single man with a guitar (or sometimes a piano or harmonica) was more appealing to record company owners than the full rhythm-section sound of classic blues.

Koko Taylor, known as the "Queen of the Blues," was born into a Memphis, Tennessee, sharecropping family during this blues transition. Taylor (née Cora Walton) was the youngest of William and Annie Mae Walton's six children. Her early musical training was in a country Baptist church choir, the cotton fields of the family farm, and impromptu jam sessions with her siblings. The family radio also contributed to Taylor's musical development, particularly the broadcasts of Memphis disc jockeys (and later blues greats) Rufus Thomas and B. B. King. Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, and Sonny Boy Williamson were some of her early musical influences.

Taylor's mother passed away when she was four years old, and her father died when she was eleven. In 1953, at age eighteen, she moved to Chicago with her soon-to-be husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor. She did domestic work in the wealthy suburbs while Pops worked in the slaughterhouses. They frequented the South Side and West Side blues clubs and juke joints, with Pops playing guitar and Taylor singing. It was during this time that Taylor began musical relationships with bluesmen such as Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Muddy Waters, whom she credits as her greatest influence. In 1963 she recorded her first single for the USA label. However, it was her introduction to the incomparable Willie Dixon that altered the course of her career. In 1965 Dixon produced Taylor's rendition of his "Wang Dang Doodle" for the Checker label, a subsidiary of Chess Records. As Chess's last big hit, the million-selling single moved beyond black radio and broke into the national charts, becoming a signature song for Taylor.

Between 1980 and 2002 Taylor received twenty-two W. C. Handy Awards in a number of categories, including Contemporary Female Artist of the Year, Traditional Female Artist of the Year, Vocalist of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year. She has received multiple Grammy nominations, and she won a Grammy in 1984 for Best Traditional Blues Recording (for Blues Explosion ). In 1993 Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley proclaimed March 3 "Koko Taylor Day." She has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame twice—in 1995 for her classic single "Wang Dang Doodle," and in 1997 as a performer.

Taylor's gritty and powerful "Mississippi blues" sound, coupled with her articulation of female sensibilities and concerns, link classic blues women and country blues men in an unparalleled fashion. Her distinct sound and mesmerizing stage presence have taken her around the world. She has made numerous national television appearances and is the subject of a documentary. In 2003 the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, recognizing Taylor's lifetime contribution to the development of rhythm and blues music, honored her with the Pioneer Award.

See also Blues, The; Blueswomen of the 1920s and 1930s; Rainey, Ma; Smith, Bessie; Smith, Mamie

Bibliography

Carter, Dick, and Sherry Wormser, prod. and dir. Koko Taylor: Queen of the Blues. MPI Home Video, 1992.

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Pantheon, 1998.

Plath, James. "Queen of the Blues: Koko Taylor Talks About Her Subjects." Illinois Wesleyan University, 1994. Available from <http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath/taylor.html>. Originally published in Clockwatch Review 9, nos. 1–2 (1994–1995): 117–131.

judith casselberry (2005)