[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 123 (Monday, October 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING MS. KOKO TAYLOR

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JESSE L. JACKSON, JR.

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 4, 2004

  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and 
congratulate one of my most prestigious constituents, from Country Club 
Hills, Illinois, Ms. Koko Taylor, the ``Queen of the Blues''. Ms. 
Taylor is a recipient of the 2004 National Heritage Fellowship.
  The National Heritage Fellowship is the country's highest honor given 
in the folk and traditional arts. Ten fellowships and twelve awardees 
were chosen from 10 states, and we are proud to have Ms. Koko Taylor as 
this year's award recipient from Illinois.
  Ms. Taylor was born 75 years ago in a sharecropper's cabin at the 
edge of a cotton plantation in southwestern Tennessee. Even though her 
father encouraged her to perform only Gospel music, Koko and her 
siblings would sneak out and play the blues on homemade instruments. 
When she was eighteen, Koko (given that name as a child due to her love 
of chocolate) moved with her soon-to-be husband Robert ``Pop'' Taylor 
to Chicago. Initially sustaining herself as a housekeeper on Chicago's 
North Shore, it was not long before she was sitting in with legendary 
blues musicians in Chicago's lively club scene. In 1962, she was 
discovered by Willie Dixon and signed to a Chess recording contract--
Chess Records was the Motown of Chicago. She recorded the million 
record selling hit ``Wang Dang Doodle'' in 1965, and had many 
successful hits since.
  For more than 40 years, Koko Taylor's powerhouse vocals have thrilled 
audiences, from little bars in Chicago's South Side to giant 
international festivals. She's been in movies, on television, on radio 
and in print all over the world. Ms. Taylor has received just about 
every award the blues world has to offer. She has received 19 W.C. 
Handy Awards, more than any other female blues artist. She has also 
been nominated for a Grammy for six of her last seven Alligator albums, 
and won a Grammy in 1984. In 1993, Chicago Mayor Richard A. Daley 
honored Taylor with a ``Legend of the Year Award,'' and declared ``Koko 
Taylor Day'' throughout Chicago. The Blues Foundation bestowed a 
Lifetime Achievement Award on her in 1999.
  Ms. Taylor has been described by Rolling Stone as ``the great female 
blues singer of her generation.'' Her vocal power and stage presence, 
drawing on such forbears as Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace, and Alberta 
Hunter, has carried her through four decades of recording and live 
performance, and she continues to play over 100 concerts a year all 
over the world. Ms. Taylor's contributions to the music world have been 
enumerable, and I congratulate her on her achievement.

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