Background
Koester was born and grew up in Wichita, Kansas, during the heyday of big band jazz.
Koester was born and grew up in Wichita, Kansas, during the heyday of big band jazz.
He also operates the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, which is the world"s largest jazz and blues record store. He started collecting and then trading records in his high school years. Wanting to become a movie cameraman, he moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, to study cinematography and business at Saint Louis University, where he sold records by mail order from his dorm room.
Koester and Fister opened a small record store called 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
In 1953, Delmar first recorded a traditional jazz group, and then searched out and recorded blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s (Speckled Red, Big Joe Williams, Juris Doctor Short, and James Crutchfield among others) who were living in Saint Louis. The name of 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. In 1963, he relocated the Jazz Record Mart and Delmark Records to 7 West Grand Avenue. In 1971, he purchased premises at 4243 North. Lincoln Avenue and moved Delmark there.
In 1996, Koester was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
The Jazz Record Mart moved to its current location at 27 East Illinois in 2006. He also has a daughter Kate Koester who lives in Seattle.
He was a founding member of the Saint Louis Jazz Club through which he met Ron Fister, another record collector.