31-590: Robert Gregg Koester (October 30, 1932 – May 12, 2021) 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
62-658: A blues shouter . He could project his voice so that it soared over the horn and reed sections in a big-band setting. Basie claimed that Rushing "never had an equal" as a blues vocalist, though Rushing "really thought of himself as a ballad singer." George Frazier , the author of Harvard Blues , called Rushing's voice "a magnificent gargle". Dave Brubeck defined Rushing's status among blues singers as "the daddy of them all." Late in his life, Rushing said of his singing style, "I don't know what kind of blues singer you'd call me. I just sing 'em." Among his best-known recordings are "Going to Chicago", with Basie, and "Harvard Blues", with
93-541: A record trader in his dormitory room. Joining a local jazz club gave Koester his first taste of live jazz, seeing Clark Terry perform. Koester made acquaintance with a fellow jazz club member, Ron Fister, with whom he opened his first record shop, K & F Sales. Shortly after opening in an old restaurant storefront, they changed the name to the Blue Note Record Shop. About a year after this joint venture, Fister and Koester decided to part ways, with Koester moving to
124-851: A recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the Delmar imprint. Born in 1932 in Wichita , Kansas, Bob Koester was the son of a petroleum engineer. While in the hospital with polio when he was a child, he listened to the radio and was cheered up when he heard Eddie Condon and Benny Goodman . In his teens, he was a dedicated jazz fan who began buying old records from a Salvation Army store. At concerts in Kansas City, he heard Red Allen , Count Basie , Jimmy Rushing , Tommy Douglas , Lionel Hampton , and Jay McShann . Moving from Wichita to St. Louis to attend college, Koester began his career as
155-537: A saxophone solo by Don Byas . Rushing was born into a family with musical talent and accomplishments. His father, Andrew Rushing, was a trumpeter, and his mother, Cora, and her brother were singers. He studied music theory with Zelia N. Breaux at Frederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and was unusual among his musical contemporaries for having attended college at Wilberforce University . Rushing's father encouraged him to play violin: "He had bought me
186-585: A small record store, K & F Sales. On moving to bigger premises they renamed it Blue Note Record Shop. After nearly a year together, Koester and Fister decided to split their business and Koester founded Delmar Records, on Delmar Boulevard . 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. The name of
217-470: A violin, and he had forbidden me to touch the piano." But when his father "left the house, he'd lock the piano and give my mother the key. We'd watch him go away, and then she'd give me the key." Rushing was inspired to pursue music and sing blues by his uncle Wesley Manning and George "Fathead" Thomas of McKinney's Cotton Pickers . Rushing toured the Midwest and California as an itinerant blues singer in
248-653: Is a classic." He was a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the Critics' Poll of Melody Maker and a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the International Critics' Poll in Down Beat . His 1971 album The You and Me That Used to Be was named Jazz Album of the Year by Down Beat , and he received the 1971 Grammy nomination Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist. Rushing was one of eight jazz and blues legends honored in
279-480: The "greatest blues singers," credited him as a seminal influence in the development of post–World War II popular black music. Hentoff wrote that rhythm and blues "has its roots in the blues shouting of Jimmy Rushing...and in the equally stentorian delivery of Joe Turner ..." Scott Yanow described Rushing as the "perfect big band singer" who "was famous for his ability to sing blues, but in reality he could sing almost anything." In an essay about his fellow Oklahoman,
310-550: The 1959 album Jazz Party . In 1960, he recorded an album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet . He appeared in the 1957 television special Sound of Jazz , singing one of his signature songs, "I Left My Baby", backed by many of his former Basie band members. In 1958, he was among the musicians included in an Esquire magazine photo by Art Kane that was memorialized in the documentary film A Great Day in Harlem . He toured
341-478: The 500 series in 1998. Delmark Records 2000 series consisted of eight CD releases between 2011 and 2012 when Delmark commenced the 5000 series. Delmark Records 5000 series follows the 2000 series as the main series of Delmark jazz albums from 2012 onwards. Delmark Records began releasing 12 inch LP blues albums in 1961 with the 600 series which continued through the 800s by 2008. Jimmy Rushing James Andrew Rushing (August 26, 1901 – June 8, 1972)
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#1732895114006372-513: The Blues . He lived in Jamaica, Queens . Rushing was held in high critical esteem during his career and after his death. Whitney Balliett , jazz critic for The New Yorker , wrote of Rushing that, "His supple, rich voice and his elegant accent have the curious effect of making the typical roughhouse blues lyric seem like a song by Noël Coward ". The critic Nat Hentoff , who ranked Rushing as one of
403-649: The Creator (1969) and Anthony Braxton 's For Alto (1969). Delmark released two of the earliest Sun Ra albums, Sun Song and Sound of Joy , in 1967 and 1968 respectively. Delmark has also released albums by Fred Anderson , Frank Catalano , Rob Mazurek , Nicole Mitchell , Ken Vandermark , Roy Campbell, Jr. , and Ethnic Heritage Ensemble ; and blues musicians including Zora Young , Ken Saydak , Byther Smith , Michael Coleman , Little Arthur Duncan , Eddie C. Campbell , Jimmy Burns , and ragtime musicians including Terry Waldo . In March 2010, Delmark announced
434-797: The Jazz Record Mart, Delmark Records found its new home in the basement of the record shop. By 1963, Koester had moved the shop to a location at 7 West Grand. During this period in Chicago, Delmark released albums by, Barney Bigard , Donald Byrd , Jimmy Forrest , George Lewis , Bud Powell , and Ira Sullivan . Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Delmark recorded the Art Ensemble of Chicago , Sonny Stitt , Junior Wells , Luther Allison , Arthur Crudup , Jimmy Dawkins , Sleepy John Estes , Buddy Guy , J. B. Hutto , Jimmy Johnson , Magic Sam , Robert Nighthawk , Yank Rachell , Otis Rush , Roosevelt Sykes , and Malachi Thompson . In 1966, Chuck Nessa , manager of
465-604: The Jazz Record Mart, convinced Koester to release albums by musicians associated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians . The first record was Roscoe Mitchell 's Sound (1966) which received a five star review in Downbeat . This was followed by Muhal Richard Abrams ' Levels and Degrees of Light (1968), Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre 's Humility in the Light of
496-803: The UK with Humphrey Lyttelton and his band. A BBC broadcast with Rushing accompanied by Lyttelton's big band was released in 2009. In 1960, he appeared in a videotaped blues jam at the Newport Jazz Festival with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, singing " Mean Mistreater ". In 1969, Rushing appeared in The Learning Tree , the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American, Gordon Parks . Rushing died of leukemia on June 8, 1972, at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City, and
527-449: The corner of Delmar and Olive streets in St. Louis. Taking the name from the street his shop was on, Koester recorded a local jazz group the Windy City Six in 1953. Shortly thereafter, Koester found local talent such as James Crutchfield , Speckled Red , J.D. Short , and Big Joe Williams . Koester moved to Chicago in August 1958. He bought Seymour's Jazz Mart, and in renaming the storefront
558-523: The early 1920s before moving to Los Angeles, where he played piano and sang with Jelly Roll Morton . He also sang with Billy King before moving on to Walter Page 's Blue Devils in 1927. He and other members of the Blue Devils defected to the Bennie Moten band in 1929. Moten died in 1935, and Rushing joined Count Basie for what would be a 13-year job. Due to his tutelage under his mentor Moten, Rushing
589-672: The front room of his Delmark Records studio at 4121 N. Rockwell St. Shortly afterwards, he opened a smaller outlet at Irving Park Road called Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart. He sold Delmark two years later. Koester married his wife, Susan, in 1968. They met at the West Grand Avenue store, located across the street from the American Medical Association where she worked. They remained married for 53 years until his death. Together, they had two children: Bob Jr. and Kate. Koester died on May 12, 2021, while in hospice care. He
620-467: The label President & CEO and Elbio Barilari became the Vice President & Artistic Director. They are two musicians from Chicago and Uruguay, respectively. The sale included Delmark's subsidiary labels, CD and LP inventory, the catalog of masters, and Riverside Studio. Delmark Records began releasing 12 inch LP jazz albums sporadically from 1959 commencing with the 400 series and continuing with
651-486: The label was changed from Delmar to Delmark, partly because of copyright issues. Koester moved to Chicago in 1958. He purchased Seymour's Jazz Mart, in the Roosevelt University Building, from Seymour Schwartz in 1959. Four years later, he relocated the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records to 7 West Grand Avenue . He purchased premises at 4243 N. Lincoln Avenue and moved Delmark there in 1971. Koester
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#1732895114006682-404: The mysterious potentiality of meaning which haunts the blues." In contrast with Rushing's reputation, he "seldom comes across as a blues 'shouter,' but maintains the lyricism which has always been his way with the blues," wrote Ellison. According to Gary Giddins , Rushing "brought operatic fervor to the blues," and of his time with Count Basie notes that "just about every record they made together
713-522: The release of the album Revisit by the Polish duo Mikrokolektyw . This album was Delmark's first by a European avant-garde jazz group in its 57-year history. In 2012, Delmark released two Chicago blues albums by Linsey Alexander and Mike Wheeler . In May 2018, Koester retired and sold Delmark Records to Delmark Records LLC, of which Julia A. Miller is the Managing Member. Julia A. Miller became
744-423: The successor Count Basie band when Moten died in 1935. Rushing said that his first time singing in front of an audience was in 1924. He was playing piano at a club when the featured singer, Carlyn Williams, invited him to do a vocal. "I got out there and broke it up. I was a singer from then on," he said. Rushing was a powerful singer who had a range from baritone to tenor . He has sometimes been classified as
775-409: The writer Ralph Ellison wrote that it was "when Jimmy's voice began to soar with the spirit of the blues that the dancers – and the musicians – achieve that feeling of communion which was true meaning of the public jazz dance." Ellison said Rushing began as a singer of ballads, "bringing to them a sincerity and a feeling for dramatizing the lyrics in the musical phrase which charged the banal lines with
806-411: Was 88, and suffered a stroke prior to his death. His son took over the management of the store on Irving Park Road. Delmark Records Delmark Records is an American jazz and blues independent record label . It was founded in 1958 as Delmar Records and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when then owner, and founder, Bob Koester released
837-516: Was a proponent of the Kansas City, Missouri, jump blues tradition exemplified by his performances of "Sent for You Yesterday" and "Boogie Woogie" for the Count Basie Orchestra. After leaving Basie, his recording career continued as a singer with other bands. When the Basie band broke up in 1950, he retired briefly but then formed his own group. He made a guest appearance with Duke Ellington for
868-503: Was an American singer and pianist from Oklahoma City , Oklahoma, U.S., best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie 's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948. Rushing was known as " Mr. Five by Five " and was the subject of an eponymous 1942 popular song that was a hit for Harry James and others; the lyrics describe Rushing's rotund build: "he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide". He joined Walter Page 's Blue Devils in 1927 and then joined Bennie Moten 's band in 1929. He stayed with
899-470: Was born in Wichita, Kansas , on October 30, 1932. He began collecting and trading classic 78 rpm records when he was in high school. He studied business and cinematography at Saint Louis University starting in 1951. While in university, Koester sold records by mail order from his dormitory room. He subsequently dropped out , and became a founding member of the St. Louis Jazz Club. There, he met Ron Fister, another record collector. The two of them opened
930-659: Was buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens , New York. Until weeks before his death, he was singing on weekends at the Half Note Club in Manhattan. Rushing was married twice. He had two sons, Robert and William, with his second wife, Cornelia (usually known as Connie), to whom he was married from the 1940s until his death. Connie Rushing is credited with two compositions on his 1968 solo album Livin'
961-530: Was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996. He became one of only a few non-performers to have been so-honored by the museum. The Jazz Record Mart moved to 27 East Illinois in 2006. The rent at that location ultimately proved too costly, and Koester closed the store after selling off its entire inventory to Wolfgang's Vault . He reopened the store in the Horner Park neighborhood at the end of April 2016, in