Bob Koester
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Robert Gregg "Bob" Koester (born October 30, 1932) is the American founder and owner of Delmark Records, the oldest jazz and blues independent record label in the United States,[1] and one of jazz's best-known imprints. He also operates the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, which is the world's largest jazz and blues record store.
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[edit] Biography
Koester was born and grew up in Wichita, Kansas, during the heyday of big band jazz. He started collecting and then trading records in his high school years. Wanting to become a movie cameraman, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to study cinematography and business at Saint Louis University, where he sold records by mail order from his dorm room. He was a founding member of the St. Louis Jazz Club through which he met Ron Fister, another record collector. Koester and Fister opened a small record store called K & F Sales. On moving to bigger premises they renamed it Blue Note Record Shop. After nearly a year together, Koester and Fister decided to split their business and Koester founded Delmar Records on Delmar Blvd. In 1953, Delmar first recorded a traditional jazz group, and then searched out and recorded blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s (Speckled Red, Big Joe Williams, J.D. Short, and James Crutchfield among others) who were living in St. Louis. The name of the label was changed from 'Delmar' to 'Delmark', partly because of copyright issues.
Koester moved to Chicago in 1958. He purchased Seymour's Jazz Mart in the Roosevelt University Building from Seymour Schwartz in 1959. In 1963, he relocated the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records to 7 West Grand Avenue. In 1971, he purchased premises at 4243 N. Lincoln Avenue and moved Delmark there.
In 1996, Koester was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
The Jazz Record Mart moved to its current location at 27 East Illinois in 2006.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Zimmerman, Karla; Dunford, Lisa; Cavalieri, Nate (2008). Chicago City Guide. Lonely Planet. p. 32. ISBN 9781741047677. "The oldest independent jazz and blues label in the country, Delmark Records has inspired countless small startups around the world determined to promote the pioneers and mavericks of the two genres."
[edit] References
- Hanson, Karen (2007). Today's Chicago Blues. Lake Claremont Press. pp. 96–98. ISBN 9781893121195.
- Kennedy, Rick; McNutt, Randy (1999). Little Labels—Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music. Indiana University Press. pp. 160ff. ISBN 9780253335487.
[edit] Further reading
- Koester, Bob (January 1974). "Letter to the Editor". Black World: 79–80. http://books.google.com/books?id=oTkDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA80&dq=%22delmark%20records%22&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=%22delmark%20records%22&f=false. A look into the dollars and cents of the record business in the early 1970s.
[edit] External links
- History of Delmark Records by Sandra Pointer-Jones
- Bob Koester by Steve Huey at Allmusic
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