Delmark Records

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Delmark Records is an American jazz - and blues - music label , founded 1953rd

The Delmark Records label is one of the oldest independent record companies in the United States. It was founded by jazz fan Bob Koester , who initially only ran the label as a hobby. Koester sold records in colleges in the early 1950s and eventually opened the record store Blue Note in St. Louis with a partner . After separating from his partner, Koester founded Delmar Records on Delmar Street in St. Louis and took up the traditional jazz band The Windy City Six on September 19, 1953 as the first production . Koester then released recordings of blues musicians like JD Short, Speckled Red and Big Joe Williams who lived in St. Louis. In 1958 he moved the company to Chicago ; founded Seymour's Jazz Mart in 1959 in the Roosevelt University building ; the name of the label has now been changed to Delmark . In 1963 he moved the company's headquarters and salesroom to Grand Avenue; In 1971 he moved to 4243 N. Lincoln Avenue, but kept the store on Grand Avenue as The Jazz Record Mart . At the same time, Koester's wife Susan was also working in the company; the only employee was Bruce Iglauer , who later founded the Alligator Records label . Bob Koester is one of the most important archivists of blues recordings in the USA.

Recordings by important blues and jazz musicians, mostly from the Chicago scene, have appeared on Delmark. The spectrum ranges from artists such as Paul Bascomb , Jimmy Forrest and Donald Byrd in the 1950s, Junior Wells and Luther Allison in the 1960s to Jimmy Dawkins , Ron Dewar and Lem Winchester to Roscoe Mitchell and Sun Ra . Particularly noteworthy is that the label offered the musicians of the Chicago avant-garde around the AACM , such as Anthony Braxton , Joseph Jarman , Muhal Richard Abrams , Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and later the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio , a publication space. But there were also recordings of the blues band Memphis Nighthawks in the 1970s. Younger musicians like Ken Vandermark , Zane Massey , Jeff Parker , Josh Abrams and Big Time Sarah have also been released. In the 1990s, recordings of Eric Alexander , Roy Campbell , Scott Fields and veterans such as Malachi Thompson and Cecil Payne were made there . 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 also appeared on the label . In 2018 Kester sold Delmark Records to Chicago musicians Julia A. Miller and Elbio Barilari.

In the last few years Delmark has also entered the production of video DVDs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Howard Reich: Delmark Records founder sells label to Chicago musicians Julia A. Miller and Elbio Barilari. Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2018, accessed May 1, 2018 .