"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.
"In 1956 or '57 my father accepted a job in Italy and he wanted me to close up and go with him. I decided I didn't want to do that so he gave me five hundred bucks. That was enough to really get us going, so I had covers printed for five titles. Then over the weekend they stopped making ten inch LPs. So I was out of business. "
Koester took full advantage of the demise of the 10 inch format by going around and buying them all from local distributors for a dollar a piece and selling them at regular price with the profits he was able to recoup his losses and continue recording.
"I learned the thing that will screw you as a label will finance you as a dealer. By doing this I was able to get 4 twelve inch LPs out in a period of a year and a half or two years and to pay off most of my debts. We had no forewarning that 10 inches was going out I went down to Columbia Records on a Friday night and bought 10 inch LPs for $2.10 and went back Monday and was able to get them for $1.00."
Article comments