Timely, Taylor-Made Blues on Tap Tonight

As if the 14-act bill at this weekend’s Long Beach Blues Festival isn’t enough for local blues hounds, the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana has booked veteran singer KoKo Taylor tonight.

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Taylor, 60, is a gravel-throated singer whose blues are firmly rooted in the tough traditions of Bessie Smith and Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton. Her music comes from the standard Chicago blues style of shuffling guitars up front and popping horns in the back, and her material often deals with such contemporary concerns as domestic violence and women’s issues.

Her voice is a raspy but eminently soulful wonder as she gargles and growls notes with ferocity through a warm, gap-toothed grin that is something of a a physical trademark.

Taylor got her start hanging around the Chi-town blues scene in the early ‘60s, sitting in with the bands of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy and the like. Her big break came in 1962 when she was taken under the wing of composer-producer Willie Dixon, who got Taylor signed to the legendary Chess blues label. She became established as a top-shelf blues artist with the million-selling hit “Wang Dang Doodle” in 1965.

When Chess went out of business 10 years later, she was picked up by fledgling Alligator Records, a blues and roots-music label, with whom she’s since recorded seven albums. She won a 1984 Grammy Award and five nominations as well as 14 W.C. Handy Awards--the blues world’s version of the Grammys. Nowadays she tours more than 200 days a year.

* KoKo Taylor & Her Blues Machine, the Jive Kings and Fry Sum Blues play tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15. (714) 957-0600.