CaribPR Newswire, NEW YORK, NY Jan. 10, 2008: Chicago-born Grammy- award-winning blues singer, Koko Taylor, has been added to the January 24-27, 2008 line-up of the annual Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival.
Known worldwide as The Queen Of The Blues, Taylor was born and raised on a sharecropper’s farm just outside of Memphis and began singing in church as a child. At 18, Taylor moved to Chicago. While working as a domestic on Chicago’s ritzy North Shore by day, she began to sit in with the various blues bands across the city’s South Side at night. The great producer/songwriter Willie Dixon heard Koko singing with Howlin’ Wolf’s band one night and quickly secured a contract with Chess Records for her, where she scored a million-selling hit with Wang Dang Doodle.
Over the course of her nine Alligator albums, Taylor has won every award the blues world has to offer, including eight Grammy Award nominations. She won a Grammy Award in 1984 for her participation in the compilation album Blues Explosion. Taylor has performed for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and appeared on television and in movies countless times.
On her recent album, ‘Old School,’ Taylor returns to the sounds of the 1950s electric blues she heard when first arriving in Chicago on a Greyhound bus from Memphis. With five original compositions (more than she has written on any previous recording) and singular reinterpretations of songs she carefully chose, Old School has been hailed as the best album of her entire career.
Taylor will replace Taj Mahal on the Saturday January 26, 2008 line-up that is already receiving rave reviews from fans and resulting in tickets for the festival and airlines as well as hotel rooms becoming hot selling commodities.
Others on the star-studded line-up include legendary singer, Diana Ross; eight-time Grammy Award winner, Anita Baker, revered ‘Caribbean Queen’ singer, Billy Ocean, Grammy winner Jill Scott, newcomer Ryan Shaw, Spyro Gyra, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Yerba Buena, pianist Marjorie Whylie, JT Taylor, Kool & the Gang’s former ” Legendary Voice,” Jessica Yap; AJ Brown, Dwight Stephenson and 13- year-old powerhouse Nikki.
Tickets to the festival are still available at the event’s home page: http://www.airjamaicajazzandblues.com/08/.
But the executive producer is reminding fans that tickets will only be sold for a limited time to the January 24-26, 2008 event and is urging all to ensure they snap up tickets now.
Meanwhile, many hotels in the Montego Bay area have already sold-out, but fans can still book rooms for the Caribbean’s biggest party this month.
Fans expecting to arrive in Jamaica on Wednesday, January 23rd and leave on Sunday, January 27th can find rooms at villas like www.xamaicaresortholidays.com.
In Montego Bay, rooms are available at Toby’s Resort for $325. Not too far from MoBay is Runaway Beach. The two resorts where rooms are available are at Sunflower Resort and Villas for $350, and Club Ambiance for $850. In Negril, located an hour away from MoBay, there are two resorts: Samsara Hotel in Negril costs $390 for a room, and Rondel Village costs $590 a room. Rooms are going fast, so fans are encouraged to visit http://www.ytbtravel.com/hardbeattravel or call (618) 655 – 9520 to book as soon as possible.
The Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, since its introduction in 1996, has attracted thousands of patrons from the USA, Europe, the Caribbean and Jamaica. International artistes that have performed at the festival include Alicia Keys, Kenny Rogers, Norah Jones, Julio Iglesias, Roberta Flack, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, India Arie, Nancy Wilson, Earth Wind and Fire, Kenny G., Michael McDonald, Gladys Knight, Kool & the Gang, Al Jarreau,Branford Marsalis, Brian McKnight Harry Belafonte, Babyface, Stephanie Mills, George Benson, Erykah Badu, Gladys Knight, Michael Bolton, and many more. And to bring the Jamaican flavor, well-known names such as Ziggy Marley, Morgan Heritage, Third World, Toots Hibbert, Shaggy, Sean Paul Maxi Priest, Beres Hammond, Monty Alexander, Ritchie Stephens and many other Jamaican talents have made their mark on the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues stage.
This year the festival is being presented by key title sponsor, Olint along with support from Air Jamaica, the Jamaica Tourist Board, Oasis Bottled Water, Viva Sparkling Water, Audi, Vitamalt, Power and Charmin.
For more information log on to AirJamaicajazzandblues.com or call Air Jamaica Vacations at 1-800-LoveBird to make travel plans today.
MEDIA CONTACT – International:
Felicia Persaud
CaribPR
[email protected]
718-476-3616
