Koko Taylor
Chicago is a blues town, but there is only one Queen of Chicago blues -- Koko Taylor. Her big voiced, brassy blues have dominated the Chicago scene for over forty years. Taylor was born in 1935 in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up singing in the local Baptist church. As a child, she was given the nickname Koko because of her love of chocolate. In 1953, she married Robert Taylor and moved with him to Chicago. Working by day as a maid, at night she and Robert would hit the clubs - and sing. One night at one of the clubs she met the man behind Chess Records, Willie Dixon. After he heard her sing, he became determined to record her. Their first collaboration was the 1963 song “Honky Tonky." Their 1964 “Wang Dang Doodle” sold over a million copies. The song became Taylor’s signature. Taylor won her first Grammy in 1984, but between 1980 and 2002, Taylor won an unprecedented twenty-two W.C. Handy Awards for the best in blues music. If you can’t get to Chicago, or a blues festival, you can see Taylor play a part in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart.
