Willie Dixon

As Koko Taylor walked offstage at the Strand in Redondo Beach on Saturday, many in the audience were shouting "Hail to the Queen." It was appropriate, because Taylor's performance had showed why she deserves the title "Queen of the Blues." Taylor is the headliner in the traveling Alligator Records Blues Festival, a celebration of the Chicago-based record label's 20th anniversary (which was actually last year).

Hy Weiss, 84, a music executive during rock 'n' roll's doo-wop era and beyond, died March 20 in Englewood, N.J. A native of Romania who was raised in the Bronx, Weiss started the Old Town record label in New York City in the 1950s with his brother, Sam, after working as a salesman for several small labels that specialized in R&B.

Band: Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. Personnel: Ben Reynolds, guitar, vocals; Brant Slay, vocals, harmonica, percussion. History: Reynolds and Slay met three years ago as art students at the University of Georgia in Athens. Though neither was an experienced musician, they combined Reynolds' love for Howlin' Wolf and Slay's fondness for Tom Waits and Patti Smith and began playing and writing together, taking their name from the Chickasaw River in Alabama, where their car broke down on the way to a show.

The Kronos Quartet brought their usual blend of polish and carefully chosen new music to Wadsworth Theater in Westwood on Saturday night. In an often captivating, sometimes tame program, the ensemble--David Harrington, John Sherba, Hank Dutt and Joan Jeanrenaud--smoothly presented two recent works by pioneers of the minimalist movement, two premieres, an early work by Webern and a set of blues arrangements.

"All things in moderation" may be fine advice for living, but it's no way to go about playing pop music, especially pop grounded in Southern soul and R&B. A capable songwriter and earnest performer, Marc Cohn, last year's Grammy winner for best new artist, is not out of his depth as he attempts to build a pop career out of R&B roots--his tour-opening show on Tuesday at the Coach House here covered or quoted songs by Willie Dixon, Van Morrison and Al Green.