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Robert Gregg Koester—October 30, 1932 – May 12, 2021

Bob Koester was an American record producer and businessman who was
the founder and owner of Delmark Records, a jazz and blues

independent record label. He also operated the Jazz Record Mart in
Chicago, which he billed as the "World's Largest Jazz and Blues
Specialty Store", and later a record store specializing in blues
and jazz in Irving Park, Chicago.

Koester was born in Wichita, Kansas. He began collecting and
trading classic 78 rpm records when he was still in high school.

That early interest developed in to full scale job when he was at

university in St Louis, MO (1951). Before
dropping out to and becoming a founder
member of the St Louis Jazz Club, Koester
began to sell records by mail order from his
dormitory.

Later Koester founded Delmar Records (later
changed to Delmark for copyright reasons) on
Delmar Blvd. Delmar first recorded a

traditional jazz group in 1953 and then
searched out and recorded blues musicians of
the 1920s and 1930s (Speckled Red, Big Joe
Williams, J.D. Short, Barrelhouse Buck
McFarland, and James Crutchfield among
others) who were living in St. Louis.

Koester moved to Chicago in 1958 and re-
established Delmark there in 1971 later setting

up the Jazz Record Mart. Koester was inducted
into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996. He
became one of only a few non-performers to
have been honoured in that manner by the
museum.

Throughout the 1960s, Delmark became a
crucial entity in documenting Chicago’s local
blues and jazz scenes. Koester broke bluesman

Junior Wells with the classic ‘Hoodoo Blues’,
and elevated such artists as Otis Rush and
Magic Sam. Artists on the jazz side included
Ira Sullivan and George Freeman. Then, in
1966, Chuck Nessa, who managed the Jazz
Record Mart, convinced Koester to release an
experimental free-jazz album by South Side
saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell. The album, Sound, was the inaugural recording of what would become
the Art Ensemble of Chicago—and of the recently formed AACM.

Koester died while in hospice care. He was 88, and suffered a stroke prior to his death.