"My purpose for going to St. Louis U. was to take some business courses because I had decided to become a movie camera man, that was my first love. I would go to Hollywood and I would make a little money and in the back of my mind I thought I would, eventually, do a little syndicated series of jazz TV shows and that I would be successful and I would have a jazz label and a jazz record store. I went to St. Louis U. and I just sort of got seduced by the music. My experiences in selling Glen Miller 78s expanded to selling the stuff that I had found in second hand stores."
Koester began selling music out of his dormitory and he joined a newly formed jazz club that boasted as members some of the most talented musicians in and around the St. Louis area. Alas, the lure of the music and a chance meeting gave his life's plan a twist only fate can deliver.
"A jazz club was being organized at the time in St. Louis and I went to the founding meeting. I was a founding member of the group. I remember the first meeting where I heard a hell of a lot of good music. I later found out that some of the best musicians in town were there. Bob Graf was there. Clark Terry was there. Through the St. Louis Jazz Club I was able to do a certain amount of promotion for my business. Eventually I was chairman of the program committee; as soon as I was able to go into bars, I wasn't old enough at first. At the second meeting of the jazz club I met a guy named Ron Fister."
Fister collected pop music of the thirties and forties but he also loved Ellington, Billie Holiday and Mildred Bailey, three of Koester's all-time favorites. This encounter sparked the beginning of K & F Sales, Koester's first record store.
"It worked out pretty well because if we found anything made before 1930 we would buy it so we were able to dispose of stuff that no one wanted. After lugging all my records out to his house he decided this was an inconvenience to him. He found a place that wasn't very big for 40 bucks a month and we opened up a store there."
K & F Sales soon outgrew its building and found a new location, a building that once housed a restaurant. Koester and his partner turned it into the Blue Note Record Shop. After nearly a year he and Fister discovered that they were moving in two different musical directions. They agreed to split up the inventory and Koester moved to a new location at Delmar and Oliver Streets. It was at this settlement that Delmark Records began. In 1953 at the age of 21 Koester recorded the Windy City Six, a vintage jazz group based in St. Louis. The progression had begun. Soon after that first recording Koester and a friend organized a search for musicians of the '20's and '30's living in St. Louis. The search yielded some of the greatest blues ever recorded. Master bluesmen such as Speckled Red, Big Joe Williams and J.D. Short were recorded by the tiny record company. With this block of artists, Delmark garnered recognition and quickly gained respect in the record industry. But success is never easy. After putting out only three LPs, tragedy hit the small company.
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