Bob Koester established Delmark Records in 1953 in St. Louis. It was known then as Delmar and was one of the first companies that issued entire 10-inch albums of traditional New Orleans jazz rather than seven-inch or 12-inch singles. Koester moved to Chicago in 1959 and changed the label's name to Delmark. The company had a three-fold strategy; Koester released traditional New Orleans jazz by people like George Lewis, Art Hodes, Albert Nicholas and Earl Hines, expanded into modern material with releases from Ira Sullivan, Sonny Stitt and Jimmy Forrest and then put a foot into the free arena with albums by Sun Ra and many members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the late '60s and early '70s. Delmark issued albums by The Art Ensemble and individual members including Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, plus Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and others. Their series of brillant blues dates in the '60s by Junior Wells, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, J.B. Hutto and early stars like Big Joe Williams and Sleepy John Estes were justly celebrated, as were their free releases. During the '70s, Koester acquired the rights to the United, Pearl and States labels, two pioneering black-owned companies and re-issued sessions by J.T. Brown, Robert Nighthawk, Paul Bascomb and Johnny Wicks. During the '90s, they began an Apollo re-issue line with titles from Coleman Hawkins, Willis Jackson, and Sir Charles Thompson.They have also issued new jazz by Malachi Thompson, Brad Goode, Frank Walton and others. Koester operates the Jazz Record Mart as well, one of the nation's premier mail-order and retail record stores. Delmark has actively entered the CD re-issue market. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide
