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Happy 60th Birthday to Delmark Records!


paul secor

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Delmark Records is 60 years old. Must be a record for an independent record company. At least, I can't think of another independent that's lasted 60 years and remained an independent. To put it into perspective, Delmark is almost as old as I am, as Chuck Nessa is, as Larry Kart is, and as some other older members here are.

Congratulations to Bob Koester and Delmark.

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Congratulations Indeed!

So many great jazz and blues albums on Delmark! Bob has always had a fondness for "trad jazz" which is why their catalog contains so many gem New Orleans sessions (Jim Robinson, Percy Humphrey, George Lewis, Bunk Johnson) not to mention the Chicago guys like Art Hodes (who has a new CD coming out soon!).

Bob Koester has done so much for music (especially his tireless blues work) and I can tell you from a recent conversation with him that Delmark Records has wonderful things in store for the future!

Hope there's 60 more years of Delmark ahead!

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NIce article. Great record company; but perhaps not the oldest indie.

Savoy started in 1939 and still exists as part of Malaco (though I haven't seen new albums for 3-4 years).

Asch started in 1944 and Folkways is in existence as part of the Smithsonian Inst and is stil recording.

Circle was started by Rudi Blesh in 1946 and appears still to be part of GHB. Don't know whether new recordings are being made.

But Delmark is the oldest that's never changed ownership, because the founder hasn't died yet.

But happy birthday to Delmark, whatever. :party::party: :party:

MG

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MG, I believe GHB under various disguises has been around as long as Delmar/Delmark. George Buck and Bob Koester have done tons of good in the world, too, and it's too bad Buck isn't the broadcasting tycoon of Atlanta, instead of Ted Turner. Koester is a complicated man who drove me nuts when I worked for him and who has been a generous friend ever since. What's more, every conversation with him is an education. He was the trad jazz lover who gave Joe Segal the chance to record bop musicians and Chuck Nessa the chance to record Jarman and Mitchell for Delmark, and encouraged at least 1-2 blues record companies to start too. He gave some music scribes and disk jockeys their starts, including J.B. Figi and the O'Neils of Living Blues magazine He hired various AACM and Umbrella Music musicians to work in his store and let Big Joe Williams sleep on the store's basement sofa whenever Joe came to Chicago (in return Joe once cleaned up the store's toilet, which had been an object of creeping eldritch horrors to shock Lovecraft). Koester even came to hear and even enjoy some free-jazz concerts. He used to show old movies from his collection to neighbors every Friday night and he still has an annual show of jazz films in his store. Of course Colinmce is right: Koester is in the right place/time, takes the right advice even when he isn't familiar with the music, and comes out with valuable albums. A lot of us are quite indebted to him.

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  • 1 month later...

Have a small bone to pick with Koester about his liner notes to one of the two recent Art Hodes sets of mostly unissued material that he acquired from Euphonic Sounds, "Art Hodes: Tribute To the Greats." The music is terrific and the the sound is, too, but Bob doesn't mention in the very general notes when the music was recorded (it is mentioned on the back of the disc, 1976 and '78) or where. Also, stating that Hodes "collected clarinetists" and "found a place for more obscure artists," Koester adds, "Would we remember clarinetists Bujie Centobie and Rod Cless ... if it werent for Art?" Don't know about Centobie, but Cless was a fairly prominent player who made more than a few recordings, e.g. with Muggsy Spanier's Ragtimers on RCA-Bluebird. Hey, Bob, that was a famous band of its kind and on a major label, and those were celebrated sides.

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  • 9 years later...

So, just last night in a txt-msg exchange with an old friend, I learned that Delmark started, in of all places, my home town (St. Louis) -- and was originally called Delmar Records (named after the prominent street Delmar, north of Forest Park).  In fact, the location Delmar Records was 5671 Delmar Blvd. STL (about 6 miles west of the river as the crow flies).  Delmar had perhaps 20 releases, at least according to Discogs...

https://www.discogs.com/label/221306-Delmar-Records

The discogs page (link) also states up at the top (and I quote):  "US label, founded 1953 by Robert G. Koester out of his record shop on Delmar Blvd. in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1958 Koester moved to Chicago.  The label was renamed to Delmark Records in the early 1960s due to the threat of a lawsuit."

QUESTION1:  Anyone have any idea what other party was that suing to try and compel this change?  I guess, obviously, some other company named "Delmar" - maybe one up in Chicago?  My cursory Googling can't seem to turn this up.  (Or anything whatsoever about the suit.  Surely it wasn't another record company by that same name?)

Also, I looked on Google Street View, and the location has a social security building there now, that looks like a sort of 1980's (90's?) plain "neo-deco" sort of thing.

QUESTION2:  Can anyone turn up a photo of the building that was originally there back in the early-to-mid-50's??  Address again was  5671 Delmar Blvd.  My Google-fu isn't bringing up anything relevant.

Thanks!!

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Edited by Rooster_Ties
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30 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Bob told me about this. I believe it had some relationship with Selmer musical instruments. I know there were some Erroll Garner sides on Selmer in the '40s.

Bingo! Thanks Chuck!

http://digital.livingblues.com/publication/?i=718906&article_id=4100630&view=articleBrowser

“In 1963, Delmar became Delmark when Selmer, a musical instrument company with its own record label, argued that Delmar was too similar a name in the music.”

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On 5/23/2013 at 12:15 AM, John Litweiler said:

MG, I believe GHB under various disguises has been around as long as Delmar/Delmark. George Buck and Bob Koester have done tons of good in the world, too, and it's too bad Buck isn't the broadcasting tycoon of Atlanta, instead of Ted Turner. Koester is a complicated man who drove me nuts when I worked for him and who has been a generous friend ever since. What's more, every conversation with him is an education. He was the trad jazz lover who gave Joe Segal the chance to record bop musicians and Chuck Nessa the chance to record Jarman and Mitchell for Delmark, and encouraged at least 1-2 blues record companies to start too. He gave some music scribes and disk jockeys their starts, including J.B. Figi and the O'Neils of Living Blues magazine He hired various AACM and Umbrella Music musicians to work in his store and let Big Joe Williams sleep on the store's basement sofa whenever Joe came to Chicago (in return Joe once cleaned up the store's toilet, which had been an object of creeping eldritch horrors to shock Lovecraft). Koester even came to hear and even enjoy some free-jazz concerts. He used to show old movies from his collection to neighbors every Friday night and he still has an annual show of jazz films in his store. Of course Colinmce is right: Koester is in the right place/time, takes the right advice even when he isn't familiar with the music, and comes out with valuable albums. A lot of us are quite indebted to him.

What is “Umbrella Music”? I’ve never come across this term.

thanks to Rihanna, it is basically unGoogleable.

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