Delmark Records
Delmark Records is an American jazz and blues record label that was founded in 1953.
The label Delmark Records is one of the oldest independent record labels in the United States. It was founded by the jazz fan Bob Koester, who initially ran the label as a hobby. Koester sold in the early 1950s records in colleges and eventually opened in St. Louis with a partner, record store Blue Note. After separating from his partner Koester Delmar Records founded in Delmar Street in St. Louis and took on September 19, 1953 as the first production of the Traditional Jazz band The Windy City Six on. Koester then also released recordings of blues musicians as JD Short, Speckled Red and Big Joe Williams, who lived in St. Louis. In 1958 he moved the company to Chicago; he founded in 1959 Seymour 's Jazz Mart in the building of Roosevelt University; the name of the label has now been changed in Delmark. In 1963 he transferred the seat of the company and the sales room in the Grand Avenue; In 1971 he moved into premises at 4243 N. Lincoln Avenue, but kept the sales room in the Grand Avenue as The Jazz Record Mart. At this time, Koester's wife Susan worked in the company; only employee was Bruce Iglauer, who later founded the label Alligator Records. Bob Koester is considered one of the greatest blues recordings of archivists in the United States.
On Delmark recordings appeared important blues and jazz musicians, mostly from the Chicago scene. The spectrum ranges from artists such as Paul Bascomb, Jimmy Forrest and Donald Byrd in the 1950s, Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra, Junior Wells and Luther Allison in the 1960s, Jimmy Dawkins, Ron Dewar and Lem Winchester. Particularly noteworthy is that the label of the musicians of the Chicago avant-garde to the AACM, Anthony Braxton, Joseph Jarman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and later the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and Ritual Trio El'Zabars Kahil, a publication area offered. However, it also emerged shots of the Blue Band Memphis Nighthawks in the 1970s. Even younger musicians like Ken Vandermark, Zane Massey, Jeff Parker, Josh Abrams and Big Time Sarah were published. In the 1990s there emerged also recordings of Eric Alexander, Roy Campbell, Scott Fields and veterans like Malachi Thompson and Cecil Payne. On the label, the recordings of jazz musicians Jodie Christian, Ernest Dawkins, George Freeman, Lin Halliday, Carl Leukaufe, Nicole Mitchell, Harold Ousley, Mike Smith, Artur Majewski / Mikrokolektyw and Ira Sullivan appeared.