Following blues diva Koko Taylor
Barre filmmaker portrays an idol
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The late legendary blues singer Koko Taylor in "Queen of the Blues: A Portrait of Koko Taylor," a film documentary directed and produced by Barre filmmaker Sherry Wormser Rhynard, will be screened in Montpelier on Oct. 25. WEB PHOTO |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: October 16, 2009
Sherry Rhynard, now of Barre, was a college student when she met legendary blues singer Koko Taylor. It was 1977, and Rhynard was working at a community radio station in Columbia, Mo., and she was allowed to sit in on an interview with Taylor. That day led to a documentary film, and a friendship that was to last until Taylor's death.
"I was just really taken by her rawness in her music, but then what a gentle person she was – it just made an impression on me," Rhynard said. "So, when I moved to New York a few years later and had skills to do a documentary, I came upon her at the Lone Star Café. I went backstage and I talked with her about the possibility, and she was very open to it."
"Queen of the Blues: A Portrait of Koko Taylor," directed and produced by Rhynard, will be screened on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 4 p.m., at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier, followed by a discussion. At 5:30 p.m. Dave Keller and friends will jam to honor Taylor's legacy at Langdon Street Café. Local blues singers will join Keller to perform some of Taylor's signature songs. Proceeds will benefit the Koko Taylor Foundation.
Taylor, who died in June at the age 80, was an American blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues performances.
Taylor succeeded in the male-dominated blues world. She took her music from the tiny clubs on the South Side of Chicago to giant festivals, and performed all over the world.
Taylor once said, "It's a challenge. It's tough being out here doing what I'm doing in what they call a man's world," she said. "It's not every woman that can hang in there and do what I am doing."
Although Rhynard had never made a documentary before, she knew the right people in the New York entertainment industry. Among others, Dan Aykroyd donated $10,000, and David Lynch gave $5,000, but it took several years to raise the necessary funding. Finally, made in conjunction with WTTW Journal Productions in Chicago, the documentary became a reality.
To make the documentary, Rhynard joined Taylor on the road.
"The inspiration kept growing in terms of her life," Rhynard said
She learned that Taylor grew up during the era Jim Crow segregation, and was one of five siblings, all orphaned when Taylor was a young teen. Her formal education ended at eighth grade.
"She had a tough upbringing," Rhynard said. "That said, she always had a twinkle in her, a smile, and was the kindest person I ever met."
It was music, though, rather than her life that was Taylor's inspiration.
"A lot of other female singers, particularly in blues, they had hard lives, too," Rhynard said, "but they turned to addictions, abuses, whatever. It wasn't even like religion was a thing – for her, it was really about music."
Taylor's husband Robert "Pops" Taylor, a one-time truck driver and later guitarist, was also an inspiration.
"He was much older but, even though he had a band, it was always about her," Rhynard said. "I was really taken by that."
Taylor's husband took her into clubs in Chicago's South Side where she performed and met the likes of Muddy Waters.
"I guess one thing led to another," Rhynard said. "Apparently there was someone from Chess Records in the audience and I guess that was how she started. It was the pre-eminent blues label at the time."
In the process, Rhynard was on the receiving end of Taylor's warmth.
"I got to be close friends with her – and I didn't expect that," Rhynard said. "I didn't expect her to let me in the way she did; I didn't expect the generosity to be so overflowing; I didn't expect to stay at her house when I came to visit."
Rhynard eventually left New York for Vermont, where she employed her fund-raising skills as director of the Vermont chapter of March of Dimes. After battling cancer, Rhynard turned to the healing arts, and assists people with biofeedback and stress reduction.
Still, Taylor remains close to Rhynard's heart. One of the last times she saw the blues diva perform, Taylor was brought to the stage in a wheelchair.
"She walked up the steps – she had gout terribly – and she started just dancing, dancing, dancing the whole set, just boogie-boogie, then down the steps and back into the wheelchair," Rhynard said, adding, "I had this friendship with her right up until I attended her funeral."