Koko Taylor - Koko Taylor (Chess Acoustic Sounds Series Vinyl)

Chess Acoustic Sounds Series 180 Gram Vinyl in Tip-On Gatefold Jacket

Koko Taylor's self-titled 1969 album for Chess is her first entry in the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series, reissued here under catalog number ACHE 46720. The original analog tapes were remastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab and pressed on 180 gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings. The tip-on gatefold jacket carries the original front: Don Wilson's illustration of Taylor under a crescent moon, the Chess Stereo LPS 1532 banner, and the line "Produced by Willie Dixon."

Born Cora Ann Walton in 1928 and raised outside Memphis, Taylor moved to Chicago in 1952 and was singing in the city's blues clubs when Dixon heard her in 1962. She signed to Checker, the Chess subsidiary, in 1964. On December 7, 1965 she recorded his "Wang Dang Doodle," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 58 on the Hot 100, sold a million copies, and in 2023 entered the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

The album gathers sessions from 1965 to 1968 at Ter Mar in Chicago, with Dixon producing and Gene Barge sharing the arrangements. Buddy Guy plays guitar on several tracks, alongside Walter "Shakey" Horton on harmonica, Lafayette Leake and Sunnyland Slim on piano, and Clifton James on drums. Dixon wrote eight of the twelve songs, including "Twenty Nine Ways" and "Insane Asylum"; "Nitty Gritty" is Taylor's own.

Chess's notes call her Chicago's undisputed Queen of the Blues. She went on to record nine albums for Alligator from 1975, won the 1985 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album, collected 29 Blues Music Awards, entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997 and received a National Heritage Fellowship in 2004. She died in Chicago in June 2009.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Love You Like A Woman
2. I Love A Lover Like You
3. Don't Mess With The Messer
4. I Don't Care Who Knows
5. Wang Dang Doodle
6. I'm A Little Mixed Up

Side B

7. Nitty Gritty
8. Fire
9. Whatever I Am You Made Me
10. Twenty Nine Ways
11. Insane Asylum
12. Yes, It's Good For You