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Music CD - Koko Taylor: Old School
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Music CD: Old School
Artist: Koko Taylor
List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $9.94
Your Save: $ 8.04 ( 45% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Alligator Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Piece Of Man
2. Gonna Buy Me A Mule
3. Black Rat
4. Money Is The Name Of The Game
5. You Ain't Worth A Good Woman
6. Better Watch Your Step
7. Bad Avenue
8. Bad Rooster
9. Don't Go No Further
10. All Your Love
11. Hard Pill To Swallow
12. Young Fashioned Ways
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0014551491521
Label: Alligator Records
Manufacturer: Alligator Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Alligator Records
Release Date: 2007-04-03
Studio: Alligator Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The strength of Taylor's vocals and songwriting skills is remarkable
Comment: When I saw Koko Taylor's fiery performance at the 2006 Pocono Blues Festival, I knew we had not seen or heard the last of her. Given The Queen Of The Blues had a close brush with death and months in hospital in late 2003 and 2004, the fact that she is still "Fixing to go to work" at age 78 is amazing. Even more remarkable is the strength of her vocals and songwriting skills on Old School. She wrote five vibrant originals and chose seven others with a special meaning to her. Many are about relationships and contain age old blues imagery and analogies. The music on this disc comes with power, forcefulness, and a certain sexiness. It's the Queen's first album in seven years and one that quite frankly Bruce Iglauer "Thought would never be made." In a career that practically spans half a century, she's been recording for Iglauer's Alligator Records for over 30 years and continues to be their monarch.
Born just outside Memphis, Tennessee, Koko Taylor was influenced by the blues music she heard on the radio. At the age of 18, she moved to Chicago with nothing but thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz crackers. There, while singing in a club, she was discovered by Willie Dixon. "I love singing the real, old school blues," asserts Taylor. "This album is the kind of blues I was listening to down South and I when I first came to Chicago." That traditional style of electric blues, which now only attracts a small audience, is commonly misunderstood as boring. However, that isn't how these thrilling tracks come across.
If you've seen Taylor's energized show over the past several years, you'll not require the credits to confirm which adrenalin-laced track features her rockin' road tested Blues Machine band. On every other song, the young contemporaries step aside in favor of a band of lifelong musicians. With bellowing vocals and an unquestionable Chicago blues technique, Piece Of Man contains a classic Taylor sound. Bob Margolin's killer slide and Billy Branch's superb harp can be heard on Memphis Minnie's Black Rat and Lefty Dizz's Bad Avenue. Margolin is an old school aficionado who once referred to it as being a contagious disease. Like water into a sponge, you'll be so absorbed into the slow blues Money Is The Name Of The Game you will experience everything Taylor sings and each note Johnson plays. Now that's the blues.
Most of the songs where Criss Johnson - her long-time arranger - is the only guitarist have a contemporary feel due to his modern-day guitar sound. By nature, Johnson isn't an old school guitarist. On occasion he can't resist playing a practically distorted hard rock style guitar solo. Ironically, distortion was purposely a part of the old school sound thanks to cranked up old amplifiers. Mark Kazanoff's bursting sax, Jimmy Sutton's commanding upright bass, and Brother John Kattke's stellar piano help to keep the structure in the past on Gonna Buy Me A Mule. It and Better Watch Your Step are the CD's strongest selections. The former features Taylor's best vocals of the album. You Ain't Worth A Good Woman - a kickin' and fashionable song - contains Taylor's well known sass, strut, and funk, which is absent from the dragging rendition of Magic Sam's All Your Love.
I initially thought this CD had missed its mark of being an old school blues record because it is quite contemporary sounding. Upon realizing the goal was to create a blues record in the spirit of old school blues, I can honestly say the goal was exceeded two fold.
Customer Rating:
Summary: She's still got it!!!
Comment: This album proves once and again that Koko Taylor was, is, and always will be the original "Queen of the Blues!" No one does it better!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: BLACK RAT
Comment: released in 2007, her first album in seven years, Koko Taylor picks up right where she left off, without skipping a beat, as the undisputed Queen of the Blues. This woman still has great chops at 72 years old, her raw, gut-bucket style of singing can still peel the paint right off the walls, nothing subtle or introverted about her singing. Great backup playing by her band, too. LET THE JUKEJOINT JUMP!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Koko once again sings like nobody else can the blues
Comment: This is one of my favorite CD's she has produced. I enjoy the variety and depth of the cuts that really let her powerful voice shine like only Koko's can. Only wish i could get this in vinyl instead of CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Old School, my review from Barcelona
Comment: I'm surprised that Koko Taylor called `QUEEN OF THE BLUES', now 72 years old, is still singing the blues and defending her crown, setting an example to all new generations. Amazingly, she don't abuse of her gritty voice sometimes some annoying and sounds as good as they ever did, perhaps less powerful, but all the more expressive and focused. As more outstanding personal she is backed by Muddy Waters' former guitarist, "Steady Rollin'" Bob Margolin a very good guitar player, on several songs, Mark Kazanoff tenor saxophone feature in a couple of songs, while the rest of them less one song, is Billy Branch who is blowing the incredible harp it often contains that James Cotton ruggedness.
Referring to songs in my opinion there are some themes here, like "You Ain't Worth a Good Woman", Lefty Ditz's "Bad Avenue", and the slow and rather forgettable "Money is the Name of the Game", not bad at all but dispensables.
But fortunately there is also some really great, good blues to be found. The opening number, Taylor's own "Piece Of Man", is one of the highlights of the album, a powerful, thumping and typical R&B "Hard pill to swallow" with a curious Criss Johnson's solo guitar, she also does an amazing rendition of the classic Lawler's "Black Rat" I was frankly surprised at how good this one sounds because is one Blues that I don't like it generally. And there are also excellent covers of two somewhat lesser - known Willie Dixon songs as "Don`t go no further" and a surprising "Young fashioned ways", and a relatively slow, soulful Magic Sam's "All Your Love".
In short words this is traditional, full-bore Chicago Blues at its best. Highly recommended for all blues fans and I give it 4 stars.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Go ahead and call it a comeback. Despite her advancing years and frail health following a 2003 hospitalization, Old School shows that the Queen of Chicago Blues has no intentions of abdicating her throne just yet. Koko Taylor isn't terribly prolific--this is only her third album in 14 years--but she's also never released a lackluster effort, and this is no exception. As the title suggests, you should be prepared for tough, rugged Chicago blues sung by one of the masters of the genre, regardless of gender. Taylor's legendary booming voice does show some wear, but her husky pipes, wang-dang-doodle attitude, and sheer enthusiasm will convince any skeptics that the singer is far from phoning in her performance. The disc is split evenly between originals and covers of Willie Dixon, Magic Sam, and others, all powered by a gritty yet professional no-nonsense band featuring guitarists Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin and Criss Johnson, along with the harmonica great Billy Branch. Musically, there aren't many surprises, but at this stage Taylor isn't pushing boundaries with her meat-and-potatoes diet of grinding shuffles mixed with the occasional slow blues. Knocking off a tune or two from the hour-long program might have made this a more concise, compact statement, however. Yet with songs as frisky as "Bad Rooster"--possibly an answer to the classic "Little Red Rooster"--and a strutting version of Dixon's "Don't Go No Further," there's no doubt that Taylor remains as passionate and intense as when she was first claiming her crown, nearly four decades ago. --Hal Horowitz
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