Note: This week we I devote this space to one of the titans of the blues world, Bob Koester, who was the founder of Delmark Records and owner of the legendary Jazz Record Mart.

My god, it was a terrible punch in the gut when I first heard the news.  For some reason, I think it was on a Wednesday; May 12, 2021 I believe, when I learned of the passing of Bob Koester.  Koester was a deity of sorts to me, and to this day, I still think of him and his broad legacy often.

I discovered Koester’s Jazz Record Mart when it was located at 11 W. Grand Ave. (that’s me in the photo below in front of the store’s window – heavens, can I appear any cheesier).  Until that point, I was buying blues albums and cassette tapes mostly via mail order wherever I could find them.  Earlier, perhaps ten years or so, I had dived headfirst into Chicago’s blues scene, making what some tried to convince me were il-advised trips into the city’s south and west sides.  I wanted to immerse myself into a musical and cultural panorama that, as a young Caucasian kid from north central Indiana, I was as far removed from as possible.  All I know, and still feel to this day, is that the music still stirs something very profound inside me, and when not making my frequent ventures into Chicago to be in the middle of the then still thriving blues world, I had to amass as much recorded blues as possible to satisfy my rabid interest and curiosity.

The first time I entered the Jazz Record Mart at 11 W. Grand Ave., to be frank, I thought it was a scrapyard of sorts; quite dingy, a dark environment, and somewhat smelling of a combination of mold and stale air, like the place just needed a really thorough airing-out.  To be sure, the paint on the walls hadn’t been updated in years, and the overall ambience was one of organized chaos.  Stacks of blues and jazz 78s and 45s seemed to be everywhere, with bins of albums running the length of the narrow front room, and wall cases of cassettes inconveniently hanging above them.  The cash register was situated on a small wooden counter with a glass front and Bog Joe Williams’ nine-string guitar inside it, and behind it was a bulletin board with all manner of blues and jazz show information, plus note cards conveying all types of information from musicians seeking work, instruments for sale or wanted, and everything in between.

Old blues and jazz show and artist posters and photographs were everywhere on the walls.  And the dust; the dust hung and clung heavy throughout the store.  The floor creaked and heaved, and the front window and door glass had that foggy look that only comes from not being cleaned recently.

The larger back room, while somewhat more open, continued the general themes already mentioned, and only ensured that what one experienced upon first entering the store conveyed the overall atmosphere as one continued their shopping experience deeper into its recesses.

And there, initially and always lording over the establishment’s proceedings was Bob Koester, barking sometimes surly instructions to an employee, at times manning the cash register, many times inventorying and pricing the thousands and thousands of musical items, and often engaging blues and jazz fans in conversation about the merits of a certain recording, or perhaps where they could and should go the catch their favorite blues or jazz artist on a certain evening, perhaps with Koester himself being the blues show tour guide.

All I knew when I first walked in the door to the Jazz Record Mart was that this was where I needed to be, and Koester was the guy I wanted to know.  And across so many years, in various locations of the Jazz Record Mart, up to his eventual move to Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart on W. Irving Park Rd., I grew to revere the man for all he did for not just blues and jazz, but for music in Chicago and around the world.  To me, he was a mythical being.

Koester was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1932; not exactly the hotbed of blues and jazz we’d think about today.  The story goes that when he was a student in college at St. Louis University, he was bitten to an even greater degree by the jazz bug, an interest he had had since he was a high school lad; he began collecting jazz records at that time.  His interest was rabid, but he also figured a way to make a buck from his passion. He began buying all the jazz 78s he could get his hands on and began to re-sell them by way of mail order sales.  This served a two-fold purpose: He could make a few dollars to pad his pockets, and also have the funds available to collect those recordings that fueled his musical interests.

In college, Koester was said to have been on a study track of both business and film studies (film studies and collecting old movies would remain a passion throughout his life; his evening movie screenings were the events of legends).  But Koester eventually left college, becoming one of the launching members of The St. Louis Jazz Club.  It was through this organization that Koester met a like-minded music fanatic, with the two of them beginning a small retail record operation; if I remember correctly, it was first named K & F Sales, and then later when it moved to a bigger spot was renamed the Blues Note Record Store.  However, the operation only lasted for about a year or so.

It was at this time that Koester began recording musicians, as he formed Delmar Records, the name of the brand recognizing the street in St. Louis on which the operation was located.  Koester was in full swing now, and he started out recording a trad jazz band in 1953, but then changed his focus to chronicling the work of first-generation blues artists who were residing in the greater St. Louis area.  These bluesmen included guitarist and harmonica player J.D. Short, guitarist Big Joe Williams, piano man Speckled Red, piano great James Crutchfield, and piano master Barrelhouse Buck McFarland.  Some copyright issues arose, however, over Koester naming his label “Delmar,” so he changed the name to “Delmark.”

Continuing to the late 1950s (I believe 1958), Koester made his way to Chicago where he purchased the old Seymour’s music store, a retail operation that had been located in the Roosevelt University building.  This was the diving-off point into a full-time musical retail career which made up one facet of Koester’s storied life.  After four years or so, Koester had renamed the retail music store the Jazz Record Mart, with the store then moving to both 7 and 11 W. Grand Ave., and then on to 444 N. Wabash Ave. and 27 E. Illinois St.  Each successive incarnation of the Jazz Record Mart was larger in scope and offerings, and included space for Koester to offer in-store performances.  To move forward just a bit, when the 27 E. Illinois location closed in 2006, Koester moved his retail operations northward into Chicago.  More on that is below.

Backing-up to 1971, Koester moved the business operations of Delmark Records to a location in the 4200 block of N. Lincoln Park Ave.  By the time Koster had closed the Jazz Record Mart location at 27 E. Illinois because of enormously escalating rents, however, the Delmark Records operation had moved up north to the 4100 block north on Rockwell St.  But Koester just could not stay out of the retail record business, and he opened a cramped music retail business in the front room of the N. Rockwell location.  The whole of the inventory of the E. Illinois St. Jazz Record Mart had been sold to online retailer Wolfgang’s vault, so essentially, Koester started out all over again in 2016 acquiring blues and jazz inventory for sale. 

The N. Rockwell retail operation continued for a bit, but Koester eventually closed it and opened a storefront spot on W. Irving Park Rd. named Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart.  The man could not abandon the retail music business.

The N. Rockwell space included not only the business operations of Delmark Records, but it was also the home of the Delmark Records recording studios (Riverside Studio).  This facet of Koester’s legacy demands detail.

Under Koester’s reign, Delmark Records released many of the most prized blues and jazz collections ever, a great many under the production efforts of Koester himself, including blues outings by Junior Wells, Jimmy Dawkins, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Jimmy Johnson, J.B. Hutto, Robert Nighthawk, Sleepy John Estes, Roosevelt Sykes, Luther Allison, Yank Rachell, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Big Joe Williams, Luther Allison, among so many others.  In fact, Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues was revolutionary in that it presented the first full-length album by a true working Chicago blues band.  Such were Koester’s musical visions.

But Koster always kept his keen love of jazz intact, and the label released a great many of the genre’s best collections, including those by Sonny Stitt, Donald Byrd, Bud Powell, Ira Sullivan, and Jimmy Forrest, again, amongst so many other jazz artists.

Koster’s love of traditional jazz was deep, but in the late 1960s he was persuaded to stretch into the recording of those jazz musicians who were involved with the Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians.  This group’s artists were a more adventurous lot, and included those who were devoted to creating, performing, and recording original works that were more daring in style, including the avant-garde jazz bunch.  Kudos, again, to Koester for expanding Delmark Records’ scope.

In 2018, with Koester obviously older, the rigors at being at the forefront of a recording business the size of Delmark Records was becoming too much, and he decided to sell the operation, including the label name, all inventory, subsidiary labels, the masters catalog, and the studio.  By this time, Koester was having certain health concerns, and it was apparent to anyone who knew him that he was becoming frailer, though, he was completely devoted to his W. Irving Park Rd. retail operation, and he could be found there most days, though moving a bit slower.  He was, however, always up for a conversation about music.

 Over the years, the ranks of individuals who worked for Koester at his Jazz Record Mart locations are noteworthy.  None other than Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer worked there (and actually left to form Alligator Records when he couldn’t convince Koester to sign Hound Dog Taylor to Delmark Records), blues harmonica great Charlie Musselwhite was employed at the store, and blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield also was an employee.  Earwig Music’s Michael Frank worked there, as did Steve Dolins of The Sirens Records.  Joe Segal, the owner of The Jazz Showcase club was employed at the Jazz Record Mart, as was Pete Crawford, the owner of the club B.L.U.E.S. etcetera.  And young cornetist and composer Josh Berman worked there for quite some time.

And walking into the Jazz Record Mart could be revelatory for seeing just who was shopping there on a given day, whether it would be jazz artist Diana Krall, former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, rock legend Iggy Pop, or heavy metal bassist Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath.  Long-time blues radio host and author Steve Cushing was frequently seen there, too.  It drew those who were in-the-know about music on a serious level.

Also, Delmark Records label artists were often found at the stores, including Big Joe Williams and Willie Kent, while Honeyboy Edwards is fondly remembered being seen there, and memories of the aforementioned Big Joe Williams busking outside are also gleefully recalled.

A continuing decline of Koester’s health finally took its ultimate toll on him when he passed away in May, 2021.  He had suffered a stroke prior to his passing.  Koester’s son, Bob, Jr., continues to operate Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart.

I learned so much about the blues from Koester, and how I greatly miss his Jazz Record Mart stores.  Working hard all week was always worth it when I knew that I was going to get up early on Saturday morning and make the drive into Chicago to be the first person in the store when it opened.  I could be virtually alone awash in the thousands of blues recordings, and in the afternoon after I had gone to lunch and come back, usually Koester was there, being his irascible-yet-approachable self, ready for conversation on any blues topic I brought up.

The last time I was in the 27 E. Illinois St. location with my wife provided a classic Koester moment.  The store was teeming with men working the bins of blues and jazz collections, and my wife was looking for a sliver of space somewhere to sit down.  As Koster walked by he said with a wry smile, “I suppose I should provide a ladies area with Playgirl magazines for while their men shop.”  Classic Koester.

What an amazing American musical giant.