Cora Walton, who adopted the stage name KoKo, was born September 28, 1928 and died June 3, 2009. She wed a truck driver by the name of Robert “Pops” Taylor becoming KoKo Taylor later. Because of her unusual style and raspy yet powerful voice of singing, in addition to her blues style, the American Chicago Blues singer became known as the “Queen of the Blues”.
A share croppers’ daughter, Taylor, was raised in Shelby County, Tennessee. In 1952, she left Memphis and began singing in Chicago blues clubs. Willie Dixon spotted her one night and signed a recording contract with her on Chess Records. It was when she recoded Wang Dang Doodle a song written by Dixon.
Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois.

Taylor’s final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19, 2009, and died on June 3 of that year.
written by Isadora – information gathered from Wikipedia

Frizz every Tuesday offers the “A to Z challenge”. He’s walking us step by step through the alphabet. This week is the Letter K – to join in – http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/tagged-k-2/

Share this:

• Twitter
• Tumblr
• Pinterest

Like Loading...

Related

Author: Inside the Mind of Isadora

Intriguing, sensitive, mysterious, loving, artistic and crackling with excitement for life is a pretty good description of who I am. I just retired from the world of art where I sold my Artfully Designed Handmade Jewelry for 28 years; although, art will always be a part of who I am no matter what venue I choose to express it in.