Koko Taylor, Queen of the Blues...

I listen to radio station WWOZ out of New Orleans. It's a public radio station and they have various shows playing styles of music ranging from the traditional jazz that New Orleans is famous for to modern jazz, gospel, R&B, bluegrass, Irish, salsa and some shows that just mix it all up. 

I think there is something romantic about music coming over the air waves late at night from a distant city, especially a city like New Orleans where about everything a a human could experience or buy is available. Now I know since I listen to the station on my computer it's coming to me over fiber optic cable but actually with wifi the sounds do spend a short time in the air so that romance is not exactly lost. 

Probably by conservative estimate I own about 1700 records and CDs. There are hundreds of blues recordings in this collection. I may be listening to these recordings any time of the day but something about hearing that blues tune coming over the perceived airwaves late at night will set my hair on edge. It was the Koko Taylor tune "Voo Doo Woman" that WWOZ played that recently did this for my old balding head. 

I saw Koko perform two times in the mid 1980s. Once was at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. The other time was at the old bank in Houston called Rockefeller's which had been converted to a music club and often featured many of the blues greats. Here is a photo I made at the jazz fest performance. I could not establish what year but it was but probably the mid 1980s which would put this around the time she won her 1985 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. She was nominated eight times for Grammys. 

   

Koko was born near Memphis, Tn. By the late 50s she was in Chicago singing in the blues clubs. In 1966 her version of the Willie Dixon tune "Wang Dang Doodle" sold a million copies. 

I wish I had the names of the band members. She always had some hot guitar players, masters of the Chicago sound playing with her. Koko also appeared in the movie Blues Brothers 2000. 

Koko had a near fatal car wreck in 1989. She passed away in 2009 at age 81 from complications after a surgery. In 2019 it was reveled her master tapes, owned by Universal Music Group were among the unknown number of master tape recordings destroyed in a back lot fire that broke out at Universal Studios in 2009. 

Here's a photo I made after Koko's jazz fest performance of her and my friend Anita. Anita is a great Koko fan. 

If you don't listen to the blues, have the romance of the airwaves or have friends like Anita you have some catching up to do.