STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD
By Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
CONGRATULATING MS. KOKO TAYLOR

September 30, 2004

Mr. JESSE JACKSON, JR.: 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.