Sad day, sad day! Koko Taylor, Queen of the Blues, died yesterday from complications of surgery to stop gastrointestinal bleeding. She was 80. (Click here to visit her website.)What a voice she had! I first saw Koko Taylor years ago up at the old House of Blues in Cambridge, MA. When she hit that feral yowl to start off "I'm a Woman" the audience damned near tore the roof off the place. I saw her another time at House of Blues, and she also appeared one year at the short-lived Newport Rhythm & Blues Festival. She had a growl, and a purr, and an incredible range, and everything she sang she sang right from the gut. When they talk about gut-bucket blues, that was Koko Taylor.
I have two of Ms. Taylor's performances here from YouTube. The first is a tribute slideshow set to a recording of her "I'm a Woman"; this was her response to Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy".
Rest in peace, Koko! We miss you already!
photo from Wiki Commons and published under the following licenses: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Great remembrance. Koko was unique.
ReplyDeleteI heard about this on NPR yesterday morning. They played just one tune but I was hooked!
ReplyDeleteMy musical education needs some work and it's a little sad that so often these days it is helped along because of a loss...
that is sad - I discovered her a few years ago, she was amazing
ReplyDeleteWhat a powerful voice. What a great memory that you hold of seeing her live performances.
ReplyDeleteGreat tribute Roy :)