Jan 13, 2018

RhoDeo 1801 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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Another very credible outing, though Taylor's not quite convincing on the jazzily swinging "Sure Had a Wonderful Time Last Night." Far more suited to her raspy growl are her own "It Took a Long Time," a funky "Something Strange Is Going On," and Etta James's moving soul ballad "I'd Rather Go Blind" (beautifully complemented by Criss Johnson's liquidic guitar).



Koko Taylor - From The Heart Of A Woman    (flac  218mb)

01 Something Strange Is Going On 4:01
02 I'd Rather Go Blind 4:57
03 Keep Your Hands Off Him 3:49
04 Thanks, But No Thanks 4:14
05 If You Got A Heartache 3:42
06 Never Trust A Man 3:18
07 Sure Had A Wonderful Time Last Night 3:05
08 Blow Top Blues 4:15
09 If Walls Could Talk 3:30
10 It Took A Long Time 3:58

Koko Taylor - From The Heart Of A Woman  (ogg  90mb)

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Co-producer Bruce Iglauer anticipated a future trend by making this a set filled with cameos -- but the presence of Lonnie Brooks, James Cotton, Albert Collins, and Son Seals is entirely warranted and the contributions of each work quite well in the context of the whole. Taylor's gritty "I Cried like a Baby" and a snazzy remake of Ann Peebles' "Come to Mama" are among the many highlights.



Koko Taylor - Queen of The Blues   (flac 255mb)

01 Evil 4:58
02 Beer Bottle Boogie 3:33
03 I Cried Like A Baby 5:11
04 I Can Love You Like A Woman (Or I Can Fight You Like A Man) 3:48
05 Flamin' Mamie 3:27
06 Something Inside Me 3:43
07 The Hunter 3:26
08 Queen Bee 3:46
09 I Don't Care No More 3:08
10 Come To Mama 4:44

.Koko Taylor - Queen of The Blues  (ogg  94mb)

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Unfortunately, Koko Taylor's only domestic live album to date was cut with one of the lesser incarnations of her band, the Blues Machine, whose work could have displayed considerably more subtlety and swing than it does. Still, the set offers a vivid portrait of Chicago's blues queen in action, with faithful recitals of "Wang Dang Doodle," "I'm a Woman," and "Let the Good Times Roll."



Koko Taylor - An Audience With The Queen    (flac 294mb)

01 Let The Good Times Roll 4:00
02 I'm A Woman 5:53
03 Going Back To Iuka 4:29
04 The Devil's Gonna Have A Field Day 5:20
05 Come To Mama 4:54
06 I'd Rather Go Blind 4:30
07 Let Me Love You 4:11
08 Wang Dang Doodle 6:33

Koko Taylor - An Audience With The Queen  (ogg  121mb )

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A slightly slicker Koko Taylor than we've generally been accustomed to, with nice horn arrangements by Gene Barge that farme the blues queen's growl effectively. A Taylor duet with Lonnie Brooks would normally be something to savor, but they're saddled here with an extremely corny "It's a Dirty Job" that's beneath both their statures. Taylor wrote four of thet disc's best numbers herself, including "Can't Let Go" and the title cut.



Koko Taylor - Jump For Joy   (flac 268mb)

01 Can't Let Go 4:58
02 Stop Watching Your Enemies 5:18
03 Hey Baby 4:16
04 Tired Of That 5:50
05 It's A Dirty Job 4:20
06 Jump For Joy 4:20
07 Time Will Tell 4:46
08 The Eyes Don't Lie 3:43
09 Fishing Trip 5:27
10 I Don't Want No Leftovers 3:53

. Koko Taylor - Jump For Joy  (ogg  110mb)

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