Jan 5, 2018

RhoDeo 1753 Grooves

Hello,

Todays Artist was accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), she 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. Her 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, she 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. . ........ N'joy

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Koko was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1928, 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'. Health issues forced another seven-year hiatus before she returned with the album Old School in 2007. Koko Taylor died in Chicago in June 2009 after experiencing complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding. She was 80 years old.

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Straight digital reissue of Taylor's debut Chess album from 1969. Produced by Willie Dixon (who can intermittently be heard as a duet partner), the set is one of the strongest representations of the belter's Chess days available, with her immortal smash "Wang Dang Doodle," and the chunky "Twenty-Nine Ways," "I'm a Little Mixed Up," and "Don't Mess with the Messer." Top-flight session musicians on Taylor's 1965-1969 output included guitarists Buddy Guy, Matt Murphy, and Johnny Shines and saxman Gene "Daddy G" Barge.



Koko Taylor - Koko Taylor    (flac  265mb)

01 Love You Like A Woman 2:06
02 I Love A Lover Like You 2:43
03 Don't Mess With The Messer 2:42
04 I Don't Care Who Knows 2:10
05 Wang Dang Doodle 2:58
06 I'm A Little Mixed Up 2:39
07 Nitty Gritty 2:42
08 Fire 2:28
09 Whatever I Am You Made Me 2:25
10 Twenty Nine Ways 3:09
11 Insane Asylum 4:15
12 Yes, It's Good For You 2:39
Bonus Tracks
13 Love Sick Tears 2:44
14 He Always Knocks Me Out 3:04

Koko Taylor - Koko Taylor  (ogg  115mb)

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The queen's first album for Alligator, and still one of her very best to date. A tasty combo sparked by guitarists Mighty Joe Young and Sammy Lawhorn and saxist Abb Locke provide sharp support as the clear-voiced Taylor belts Bobby Saxton's "Trying to Make a Living," and Magic Sam's "That's Why I'm Crying," her own "Honkey Tonkey" and "Voodoo Woman," and Ruth Brown's swinging "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean."



Koko Taylor - I Got What It Takes    (flac 247mb)

01 Trying To Make A Living 2:46
02 I Got What It Takes 3:42
03 Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean 3:04
04 Voodoo Woman 3:46
05 Be What You Want To Be 3:53
06 Honkey Tonkey 2:54
07 Big Boss Man 3:57
08 Blues Never Die 3:55
09 Find A Fool 3:59
10 Happy Home 3:15
11 That's Why I'm Crying 4:28

Koko Taylor - I Got What It Takes  (ogg  102mb )

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This single disc neatly collects everything of importance that Chicago blues belter Koko Taylor released through Chess and its subsidiary Checker label, presenting a thoroughly enjoyable, collection as historically important for Taylor's sizzling performances as it is for Willie Dixon's sublime compositions and sympathetic production. Those who know these formative years from Taylor's immortal "Wang Dang Doodle" will thrill to realize that the classic isn't even the best entry here. It's a toss-up as to which others challenge it, but "What Came First the Egg or the Hen," with Dixon joining in on vocals, is in the running, as is the absolutely chilling "Insane Asylum," where Dixon interestingly kicks off the song before Taylor appears over a minute later. The producer/bassist/songwriter/singer pens all but one of the 18 songs. Of those, Taylor takes sole songwriting credit on 1964's "What Kind of Man is That?" and covers J.B. Lenoir's "Good Advice." The latter is an unusually pop-oriented moment that she still roughs up with her usual dynamic vocal attack. Taylor tackles politically charged territory in "Bill, Bills and More Bills," one of the few times that the material leans in that direction. While her later Alligator years might have exposed her talents to the world and helped crown her Queen of the Blues, this is where it all started. It shows how Taylor developed, with assistance from Willie Dixon over this fertile, seven-year stretch, to her well-earned legendary status.



Koko Taylor - What It Takes (The Chess Years)   (flac 451mb)

01 Got What It Takes 3:09
02 Don't Mess With The Messer 2:44
03 Whatever I Am, You Made Me 2:27
04 I'm A Little Mixed Up 2:41
05 Wang Dang Doodle 3:02
06 (I Got) All You Need 2:17
07 Love Me 2:46
08 What Came First The Egg Or The Hen 2:27
09 Insane Asylum 4:22
10 Fire 2:34
11 I Don't Care Who Knows 2:13
12 Twenty Nine Ways (To My Baby's Door) 3:12
13 Blue Prelude 3:31
14 I Need More And More 2:43
15 Um Huh My Baby 3:50
16 Bills, Bills & More Bills 2:51
17 I Got What It Takes (Live At Montreaux June 17 1972) 2:46
18 Untitled 6:26

. Koko Taylor - What It Takes (The Chess Years)  (ogg  180mb)

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Koko Taylor's Alligator encore harbored a number of tunes that still pepper her set list to this day -- the grinding "I'm a Woman" and the party-down specials "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Hey Bartender." Her uncompromising slow blues "Please Don't Dog Me" and a sassy remake of Irma Thomas' "You Can Have My Husband" also stand out, as does the fine backing by guitarists Sammy Lawhorn and Johnny B. Moore, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and saxman Abb Locke.



Koko Taylor - The Earthshaker   (flac 227mb)

01 Let The Good Times Roll 3:00
02 Spoonful 3:00
03 Walking The Back Streets 6:45
04 Cut You Loose 3:24
05 Hey Bartender 2:51
06 I'm A Woman 4:36
07 You Can Have My Husband 2:45
08 Please Don't Dog Me 5:16
09 Wang Dang Doodle 4:51

.Koko Taylor - The Earthshaker  (ogg  87mb)

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