In honor of legendary blues musician Koko Taylor, a class seminar was held on Feb. 10 that featured some of the most prominent women in blues music.

Columbia professor Fernando Jones and his class, “The Chicago Blues Scene: From the Past to Preservation,” along with the nation’s first collegiate Blues Ensemble, which Jones also leads, were joined by a panel that included Cookie Threatt, daughter of Taylor, as well as Loretta and Rosie Reed, daughters of famed blues musician Jimmy Reed, and Lee Payton, Columbia professor and musician. Mildred Lincoln from the social services for the Koko Taylor Foundation was also involved in the panel.

The discussion included the importance of the female artist, the importance of music fans, record deals versus self-publishing, discipline and what it means to be a professional in the industry and how to be in charge of your own business as an artist.

“We’re trying to keep you all from getting ripped off in show business,” Jones said.

The panel discussed the importance of being timely and professional in order to be successful in the music industry.

“My mother taught me you have to be mindful of others,” Threatt said. “My mother had a 49-year track record of recording and performing and she left this earth with a legacy of never being late. Even once when her van had a horrible accident—Koko wasn’t late.”

Loretta Reed added that in order to be respected as a professional, the students must be serious about perfecting their craft.

“You have to practice diligently,” Reed said. “I remember being in the studio with my daddy and he had rehearsed what he was playing over and over, so by the time we got to the studio, [there was] nothing to be done except cut it. That’s the kind of stuff you [have] to be doing in this business.”

The group also shared the importance of being careful of who takes care of their business and to keep a watchful eye on the recording industry. They urged students to make sure they are cautious of everyone, because, much to their dismay, their parents were not as careful and now they were suffering the consequences regarding ownership of songs and other copyright concerns.

Jones is not only a professor at the college, but also a distinguished member in Chicago’s blues scene. His work has been celebrated by Discovery Channel, Newsweek, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, Living Blues Magazine, London Times and Al-Jazeera. He has also been the topic of conversation on radio stations such as ABC, BBC, CBS, CLTV, NBC, WTTW and WGN for his creative viewpoint on the position of black music in America. He stresses the importance of teaching blues in the classroom, and wants his students to have insight on prominent women in the music industry.

“I feel these ladies were and are an important part of the blues’ lifeline,” Jones said. “They have experience you can read about, but it’s good to hear them come out and talk in person. [Blues is] part of the fabric of American music. Music’s always gonna be a soundtrack to what is happening in America and blues has always been there. In order to get an honest interpretation of American history, you gotta talk about the music.”

Jones hosted a road trip to the Mississippi Delta over J-Term with 21 students, where they were given the chance to study the origin of the blues.

“We had a ball,” Jones said.

One of his students, Nathan Graham, a Columbia student studying contemporary urban pop, was given a chance to work with Koko Taylor last year, just before she died.

“[Jones] asked me if I wanted to play with Koko Taylor, and I was like, ‘Of course,’” Graham said. “She was great. When we were playing with her, she told us exactly what she wanted, but she was never nasty about it. She was definitely what you could call an iron fist in a velvet glove. She knew what she wanted, but she was so sweet.”

Graham also felt it was important for the women to discuss their experiences in the industry with himself and his fellow students.

“We’re all up-and-coming musicians, and I know that I don’t want to fall into the same pitfalls that their fathers and mothers went through, so I think it was a great idea to have them here,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”