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Blues Queen Koko Taylor Dead at 80

Blues world mourns loss of Chicago legend

By the Associated Press

Posted Jun 4, 2009 6:34 AM CDT

(AP) – Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "'Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery, the AP reports. She was 80. The Memphis-born singer died at a Chicago hospital about two weeks after surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed, said a spokesman for her record label.

Taylor's career spanned more than five decades. While she did not have widespread mainstream success, she was revered among blues aficionados, and earned worldwide acclaim for her work. "The passion that she brought and the fire and the growl in her voice when she sang was the truth," blues singer Ronnie Baker Brooks said yesterday. "The music will live on, but it's much better because of Koko. It's a huge loss."

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Koko Taylor arrives at the Kennedy Center for the Kennedy Center Honors last year. (Getty Images)

Koko Taylor arrives at the Kennedy Center for the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC, last year. (Getty Images)

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Koko Taylor sings 'Ernestine.' (volfonijazzy)

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She was still the best female blues singer in the world a month ago. In 1950s Chicago she was the woman singing the blues. At 80 years old she was still the queen of the blues. - Jay Sieleman, executive director of the Blues Foundation

What a loss to the blues world. She was one of the last of the greats of Chicago and really did what she could to keep the blues alive here, like I'm trying to do now.
- Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy

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Blues Queen Koko Taylor Dead at 80