01	I Got What It Takes						03:05
	02	Don't Mess With the Messer						02:42
	03	Watever I Am, You Made Me						02:24
	04	I'm A Little Mixed Up						02:38
	05	Wang Dang Doodle						02:59
	06	(I Got) All You Need						02:15
	07	Love Me						02:44
	08	What Came First the Egg or the Hen						02:25
	09	Insane Asylum						04:19
	10	Fire						02:32
	11	I Don't Care Who Knows						02:11
	12	Tenty Nine Ways (To My Baby's Door)						03:10
	13	Blue Prelude						03:29
	14	I Need More and More						02:41
	15	Um Huh My Baby						03:48
	16	Bills, Bills & More Bills						02:49
	17	Let Me Love You Baby						02:44
	18	I Got What It Takes						06:26

Koko Taylor
Born Sep 28, 1935 in Memphis, TN


Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age. Taylor's rough, raw vocals were perfect for the swaggering new electrified era of the blues, and her massive hit "Wang Dang Doodle" served notice that male dominance in the blues wasn't as exclusive as it seemed. After a productive initial stint on Chess, Taylor spent several decades on the prominent contemporary blues label Alligator, going on to win more W.C. Handy Awards than any other female performer in history, and establishing herself as far and away the greatest female blues singer of her time.
Koko Taylor was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1935, on a sharecropper's farm in Memphis, TN. Her mother died in 1939, and she and her siblings grew up helping their father in the fields; she got the nickname "Koko" because of her love of chocolate. Koko began singing gospel music in a local Baptist church; inspired by the music they heard on the radio, she and her siblings also played blues on makeshift instruments. In 1953, Koko married truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor and moved with him to Chicago to look for work; settling on the South Side, Pops worked in a slaughterhouse and Koko got a job as a housemaid. The Taylors often played blues songs together at night, and frequented the bustling South Side blues clubs whenever they could; Pops encouraged Koko to sit in with some of the bands, and her singing - which reflected not only the classic female blues shouters, but contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf - quickly made a name for her. In 1962, Taylor met legendary Chess Records songwriter/producer/bassist Willie Dixon, who was so impressed with her live performance that he took her under his wing. He produced her 1963 debut single "Honky Tonky" for the small USA label, then secured her a recording contract with Chess.

Taylor made her recording debut for Chess in 1964 and hit it big the following year with the Dixon-penned "Wang Dang Doodle," which sold over a million copies and hit number four on the R&B charts. It became her signature song forever after, and it was also the last Chess single to hit the R&B Top Ten. Demand for Taylor's live act skyrocketed, even though none of her follow-ups sold as well, and as the blues audience began to shift from black to white, the relatively new Taylor became one of the first Chicago blues artists to command a following on the city's white-dominated North Side. Eventually, she and her husband were able to quit their day jobs, and he served as her manager; she also put together a backing band called the Blues Machine. With the release of two albums - 1969's Koko Taylor, which featured a number of her previous singles; and 1972's Basic Soul - Taylor's live gigs kept branching out further and further from Chicago, and when she played the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, the resulting live album on Atlantic helped bring her to a more national audience.

By the early '70s, Chess Records was floundering financially, and eventually went under in 1975. Taylor signed with a then-young Chicago-based label called Alligator, which grew into one of America's most prominent blues labels over the years. Taylor debuted for Alligator in 1975 with I Got What It Takes, an acclaimed effort that garnered her first Grammy nomination. Her 1978 follow-up The Earthshaker featured several tunes that became staples of her live show, including "I'm a Woman" and "Hey Bartender," and her popularity on the blues circuit just kept growing in spite of the music's commercial decline. In 1980, she won the first of an incredible string of W.C. Handy Awards (for Best Contemporary Female Artist), and over the next two decades, she would capture at least one more almost every year (save for 1989, 1997, and 1998). 1981 brought From the Heart of a Woman, and in 1984, Taylor won her first Grammy thanks to her appearance on Atlantic's various-artists compilation Blues Explosion, which was named Best Traditional Blues Album. She followed that success with the guest-laden Queen of the Blues in 1985, which won her a couple extra Handy Awards for Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year (no "female" qualifier attached). In 1987, she released her first domestic live album, Live in Chicago: An Audience With the Queen.

Tragedy struck in 1988. Taylor broke her shoulder, collarbone, and several ribs in a van accident while on tour, and her husband went into cardiac arrest; although Pops survived for the time being, his health was never the same, and he passed away some months later. After recuperating, Taylor made a comeback at the annual Chicago Blues Festival, and in 1990 she issued Jump for Joy, as well as making a cameo appearance in the typically bizarre David Lynch film Wild at Heart. Taylor followed it in 1993 with the aptly titled Force of Nature, after which she took a seven-year hiatus from recording; during that time, she remarried and continued to tour extensively, maintaining the stature she'd achieved with her '80s work as the living Queen of the Blues. In 2000, she finally returned with a new album, Royal Blue, which featured a plethora of guest stars: B.B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnnie Johnson, and Keb' Mo'. - Steve Huey


1969 Koko Taylor MCA/Chess
1972 Basic Soul Chess
1973 South Side Lady Evidence
1975 Southside Baby Black & Blue
1975 I Got What It Takes Alligator
1975 Queen of the Blues Alligator
1978 The Earthshaker Alligator
1981 From the Heart of a Woman Alligator
1987 An Audience with Koko Taylor Alligator
1987 Live from Chicago Alligator
1990 Love You Like a Woman Charly
1990 Jump for Joy Alligator
1991 Wang Dang Doodle Huub
1993 Force of Nature Alligator
2000 Royal Blue Alligator

1977 What It Takes: The Chess Years MCA/Chess
2002 Deluxe Edition Alligator

1989 Koko Taylor Defilm
Queen of the Blues MPI




What It Takes: The Chess Years
Date of Release 1977

With 18 tracks spanning 1964-1971, this compilation receives the nod over the shorter Koko Taylor (eight cuts double off anyway). Opening with her nails-tough "I Got What It Takes," the disc boasts "Wang Dang Doodle," several sides never before on album, and the strange previously unissued "Blue Prelude." Four 1971 tracks from Taylor's tough-to-find second Chess album, Basic Soul, are also aboard (including "Bills, Bills and More Bills" and her queenly version of "Let Me Love You Baby"). Producer Willie Dixon's guiding hand is apparent everywhere. - Bill Dahl

1. I Got What It Takes (Dixon)
2. Don't Mess With the Messer (Dixon)
3. Whatever I Am, You Made Me (Dixon)
4. I'm a Little Mixed Up (James/Johnson)
5. Wang Dang Doodle (Dixon)
6. (I Got) All You Need (Dixon)
7. Love Me (Dixon)
8. What Came First the Egg or the Hen (Dixon)
9. Insane Asylum (Dixon)
10. Fire (Dixon)
11. I Don't Care Who Knows (Dixon)
12. Twenty-Nine Ways to My Baby's Door (Dixon)
13. Blue Prelude (Bishop/Jenkins)
14. I Need More and More (Dixon)
15. Um Huh My Baby (Barrage/Dixon)
16. Bills, Bills and More Bills (Dixon)
17. Let Me Love You Baby (Dixon/Ingram)
18. I Got What It Takes performed by Taylor / Muddy Waters

Willie Dixon - Bass, Vocals, Producer
Buddy Guy - Guitar
Big Walter Horton - Harmonica
Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Guitar
Robert Nighthawk - Guitar
Koko Taylor - Vocals
Gene Barge - Sax (Tenor)
Dillard Crume - Bass
Fred Below - Drums
Bob Crowder - Drums
Al Duncan - Drums
Esmond Edwards - Producer
Donald Hankins - Saxophone
Clifton James - Drums
Lafayette Leake - Piano, Keyboards
Jack Meyers - Bass
Louis Jay Meyers - Guitar
Muddy Waters - Vocals, Performer
Louis Satterfield - Bass
Sunnyland Slim - Piano
Don Snowden - Liner Notes
John Williams - Guitar
Dave Meyers - Bass (Electric)
Rufus Grume - Guitar
Dennis Miller - Guitar

1991 CD MCA/Chess CHD-9328
CD MCA 9328
1991 CS Chess CHC-9328




Koko Taylor

Chart information courtesy of Billboard.com c 2002 VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Year Album Chart Highest Position
2000 Royal Blue Top Blues Albums No. 11

Year Single Chart Highest Position
1966 Wang Dang Doodle Pop Singles No. 58
1966 Wang Dang Doodle Black Singles No. 4

GRAMMY R information courtesy of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences c 2002.
[t] denotes a track.

Year Award Type Album/Track Recipient
1984 Traditional Blues Blues Explosion Koko Taylor







Koko Taylor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography:
"Deep soul, raw vocal power, blustery swagger...the great female blues singer of her generation"-Rolling Stone

"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.


Reviews:

"Raucous, gritty, good-time blues:.Taylor belts out blues in a gravel voice with ferocious intensity. Foot-stomping music that's rough, raw and wonderfully upbeat."
-people

"Chicago's best blues singer:she has fire in her lungs."
-Chicago Sun-Times

"This seemingly ageless wonder pours her heart out with fire and emotion. Her singing is full of raw growls and grunts, her voice often building in intensity until it explodes."
-LA Times

"One of the greatest female singers in R&B history."
-Austin Chronicle

"Searing power and a steely emotional tautness :she radiates a warmth that borders on the spiritual; few performers in any genre are as capable as she is of generating genuine intimacy out of fervid house-rocking moments:.a living treasure."
-Chicago Reader

"Koko Taylor will kick your butt up and down the room:raw, rompin', stompin', barn-burnin' blues. Contemporary blues just don't get any better than this."
-Blues Access

"Mother Nature's got nothing on blues legend Koko Taylor."
-San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

"Raucous, raunchy, good humored Chicago-styled blues:she unleashed like a hurricane. She attacks her material like a pitbull, ripping through the lyrics with a vengeance."
-Jazz Times

"Her punchy, hard-driving blues can still send El Nino-sized shivers through the atmosphere :. There may be no living artist who more palpably embodies the jolting, live-wire feel of Chicago blues than Koko Taylor:.she is indeed a force of nature, putting her bluesy, blistering vocal signature on everything she touches."
-Chicago Tribune

"Koko Taylor is the blues, a sweaty, growling goddess of down-and-dirty. Sheer, unstoppable shouting power, full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes. Rocking, good-time blues:booming, earthy grit."
-Boston Globe

"When Koko Taylor cuts loose, she rattles the walls."
-San Francisco Bay Guardian"

A howl, a growl and a full-throated fury that forms deep in her abdomen and reaches a roar by the time it hits her mouth."
-Detroit Free Press