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It Ain’t Over! – Delmark Celebrate 55 Years Of Blues: Live at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago IL
Delmark DE 800
Compact Disc – Also Available On DVD

Another historical anthology coming to you from the vaults of Delmark Records...
Delmark’s 55th anniversary blues bash at Buddy Guy’s Legends on March 7, 2008 featured most of Delmark’s local blues roster, a Delmark Day proclamation from Mayor Daley and a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award for the groundbreaking Hoodoo Man Blues album. Live performances by Lurrie Bell, Tail Dragger, Zora Young, Jimmy Johnson with Dave Specter, Aaron Moore, Little Arthur Duncan, Eddie Shaw, Shirley Johnson.

Delmark Records Celebrates 55 Years of Blues Live at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago Delmark DE 800

In 1965, Delmark Records released Junior Wells’ now-classic Hoodoo Man Blues, a full-bore blast of modern urban juke-joint revelry at its most potent. After the success of Hoodoo Man Blues, Delmark stepped up its recruitment of contemporary blues artists. Magic Sam, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Dawkins, and Carey Bell soon became Delmark mainstays; many also forged successful national and international performing careers on the strength of their Delmark recordings. The label that had gotten its start as a "purists’" imprint had remade itself into a bold purveyor of innovative, contemporary sounds. And that is exactly what Delmark has remained into the present day. Delmark’s 55th anniversary blues bash at Buddy Guy’s Legends on March 7, 2008 was suitably festive, with most of Delmark’s local blues roster on hand and a Delmark Day proclamation from Mayor Daley and a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award for the groundbreaking Hoodoo Man Blues, album. Complete notes by David Whiteis enclosed.

1. Zora Young Til The Fat Lady Sings (7:33)
2. Jimmy Johnson Cold, Cold Feeling (5:37)
3. Jimmy Johnson You Don't Know What Love Is (6:49)
4. Aaron Moore Wading In Deep Water (3:40)
5. Little Arthur Duncan Pretty Girls Everywhere (5:34)
6. Lurrie Bell Don't You Lie To Me (5:12)
7. Shirley Johnson As The Years Go Passing By (5:45)
8. Eddie Shaw For You My Love (4:02)
9. Eddie Shaw Sun Is Shining (5:43)
10. Tail Dragger Tend To Your Business (5:24)
11. Tail Dragger My Woman Is Gone (6:51)

Recorded live, March 7, 2008, Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago

Also available on DVD (DVD 1800)

1. Zora Young Til The Fat Lady Sings (7:33)
(Zora Young, Hard Way Music, BMI)
Zora Young, vocal; Lurrie Bell, Scott Cable, guitars; Roosevelt Purifoy, keys; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

2. Jimmy Johnson Cold, Cold Feeling (5:37)
(Jesse Mae Robinson, MPL Communications, ASCAP)
Jimmy Johnson, vocals;, guitar; Dave Specter, guitar; Brother John Kattke, keys; Harlan Terson, bass; Marty Binder, drums

3. Jimmy Johnson You Don't Know What Love Is (6:49)
(Fenton Robinson, Eyeball Music, BMI)

4. Aaron Moore Wading In Deep Water (3:40)
(Aaron Moore, Katie B. Music, BMI)
Aaron Moore, vocals, piano; Kenny Smith, drums

5. Little Arthur Duncan Pretty Girls Everywhere (5:34)
(Church/Williams, Leon Rene Family Partnership/Lugec Music, BMI)
Little Arthur Duncan, vocals, harmonica; Rick Kreher, Nick Moss, guitars; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

6. Lurrie Bell Don't You Lie To Me (5:12)
(Hudson Whittaker, Songs of Universal Inc., BMI)
Lurrie Bell, vocals, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, keys; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

7. Shirley Johnson As The Years Go Passing By (5:45)
(Don Robey, Songs of Universal Inc., BMI)
Shirley Johnson, vocal; Lurrie Bell, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, keys; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

8. Eddie Shaw For You My Love (4:02)
(Paul Gayten, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
Eddie Shaw, vocals, saxophone Lurrie Bell, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, keys; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

9. Eddie Shaw Sun Is Shining (5:43)
(Reed/Carter/Abner, Conrad Music/Seeds Of Reed Music, BMI)

10. Tail Dragger Tend To Your Business (5:24)
(James Y. Jones, Leric Music, BMI)
Tail Dragger, vocals; Big D, harmonica; Lurrie Bell, Kevin Shanahan, guitars; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

11. Tail Dragger My Woman Is Gone (6:51)
(James Y. Jones, Leric Music, BMI)
Tail Dragger, vocals; Billy Branch, harmonica; Lurrie Bell, Kevin Shanahan, guitars; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums

Album Production and Supervision: Robert G. Koester and Steve Wagner
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Steve Wagner, Eric Butkus and Dave Katzman
Mixed and mastered at Riverside Studio, Chicago
Design: Kate Moss, Moonshine Design
Special thanks to Buddy Guy, Brian Fadden, the entire staff at Buddy Guy's Legends, Kate Moss, Barry Dolins, Mayor Richard M. Daley, Tera Healy, Neil Tesser, NARAS, Rick Simcox, Big Head Entertainment, Richard Guzman, Terry Lee and Ron Cotherine.

"Whereas on March 7, 2008, friends, admirers, and musicians will celebrate the fifty-fifth anniversary of Delmark Records; and whereas, founded in 1953 by Bob Koester, Delmark is an independent jazz and blues record company; and whereas, conceived as a retail outlet for Delmark, the Jazz Record Mart, located at 25 East Illinois St., has grown to be the largest store of its kind in the world; and whereas over the years Delmark has celebrated and fostered Chicago’s internationally-renowned blues and jazz communities; and whereas a special anniversary blues show at Buddy Guy’s Legends, featuring several Delmark artists, will mark this special milestone; now, therefore, I, Richard M. Daley, Mayor of the City of Chicago, do hereby proclaim March 7, 2008, to be Delmark Records Day in Chicago."
Even in Chicago, it’s not every day that a blues and jazz record label gets an official Mayoral Proclamation in its honor. So when Barry Dolins of the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Special Events read these words to a packed house of sweat-drenched revelers at Buddy Guy’s Legends during the 55th anniversary party that Delmark Records threw for itself there on March 7, 2008, the sense of history was palpable. Even Bob Koester himself, the founder and president of Delmark, sounded humbled and (almost) speechless. His craggy, white-bearded face broke into a beaming smile as he mumbled, "Wow. . . wow. . . that’s somethin’ else!" into the mic, with cheers and applause cascading all around him.

It was a moment of relative calm in the midst of what was otherwise the kind of no-holds-barred blues party that Willie Dixon called a "Wang Dang Doodle" in the song Howlin’ Wolf made famous in 1960. Propelled into overdrive by a lineup that included some of Delmark’s best-known artists, the crowd at Buddy’s was there to celebrate their love for the music, as well as for the label and the man who have brought so much of it to so many through the years.

Given that the words "Delmark" and "blues" have become virtually synonymous for music lovers throughout the world, though, it might come as a surprise to some that Delmark Records did not start out as primarily a blues label (nor does it limit itself to blues –or any other particular genre or style– today). Bob Koester spent his youth and adolescence enamored of mainstream and vintage jazz; in the early ‘50s. When he founded his label (then called Delmar, named after the street in St. Louis on which its headquarters was located), his main focus was on jazz artists who had made their most important recordings in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

But the blues was never far from Koester’s radar. Since his teenage years he’d been an avid collector of vintage 78s; among the many records he purchased were classic sides by blues figures such as Blind Boy Fuller, Big Joe Williams, Memphis Minnie, and Big Bill Broonzy. By the time he was in college, he was already making money selling used records by artists such as these out of his dorm room at St. Louis University. In 1952 he and a partner formalized that activity by opening the Blue Note Record Shop at 3549 Laclede. Seeking to expand his entrepreneurial activities into recording, as well as reselling, good music, Koester kicked off his label not long after. He remembers that a harmonica player named Malcolm Simmons (who later became renowned as the Chicago blues harpist Little Mac Simmons) used to play in his record shop sometimes – keeping the blues connection alive, and also injecting a contemporary flavor into the atmosphere of an operation that was still, at that point, dedicated mostly to documenting and disseminating vintage sounds.

With the help of an intrepid St. Louis policeman (and jazz fan) named Charlie O’Brien, Koester also began tracking down the whereabouts of earlier-generation blues performers who were still alive, people such as Speckled Red, "Hi" Henry Brown, and Edith Johnson. For many of these artists, Delmark represented a last chance to get their music heard by a new generation of music lovers; several managed to revitalize their careers as live performers, due primarily to the publicity they garnered through their output on Koester’s label.

The man who really thrust Bob Koester into the blues recording business, though, was the legendary Delta bluesman Big Joe Williams. Not long after Koester had moved his business to Delmar Avenue, Williams came shambling into the store carrying an old publicity flyer from Columbia Records, one of his former labels, which he showed Koester to prove his identity. Koester had heard a few of Williams’ sides on the Bluebird label, but he was astonished to meet and hear such an unreconstructed Delta master in the flesh. He eventually put Williams and harpist J.D. Short in front of a sturdy (if somewhat primitive) Crown tape recorder, and the career of Bob Koester as a blues record producer was officially underway.

In 1958 Koester moved to Chicago. There he purchased Seymour’s Record Mart in the Auditorium Theater building to serve as an outlet for his record-selling business. About six years later he moved his retail operation to a storefront on West Grand Avenue in the North Loop which he dubbed the Jazz Record Mart, the name it still carries.

At this point, Delmark’s blues recording activity still centered primarily around artists whom most would call "traditional": Big Joe, Sleepy John Estes, Roosevelt Sykes, and others of their ilk and generation. But in 1965, the label released harmonica ace Junior Wells’ now-classic Hoodoo Man Blues, a full-bore blast of modern urban juke-joint revelry at its most potent. After the success of Hoodoo Man Blues, Delmark stepped up its recruitment of contemporary blues artists from Chicago and elsewhere. Important contemporary musicians such as Magic Sam, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Dawkins, and Carey Bell soon became Delmark mainstays; many also forged successful national and international performing careers on the strength of their Delmark recordings. The label that had gotten its start as a "purists’" imprint had remade itself into a bold purveyor of innovative, contemporary sounds.

And that is exactly what Delmark has remained into the present day. Over the years, Delmark has at least dipped its toe into virtually every genre of blues and jazz imaginable (it is renowned among jazz aficionados for its catalog of recordings by members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or AACM, Chicago’s legendary free-jazz collective). That eclecticism is well represented by the artists featured on this disk. Pianist Aaron Moore’s splayed treble cascades, boogie-flavored basslines, and juke-honed holler hark back to the traditionalist enthusiasms that initially spurred Koester so many years ago; in contrast, Jimmy Johnson’s deeply textured minor-key stylings, keening vocal delivery, and probing leads invoke the sophisticated, pop- and soul-influenced aesthetic vision of a fully contemporary bluesman.

Zora Young’s coruscated vocal rasp sounds as if it’s emanating directly from "Bad Avenue," and her band’s rough-hewn funkiness provides an appropriately streetsy soundtrack. The late Little Arthur Duncan’s tubular harmonica style and larynx-straining vocals pay tribute to his early role models such as Little Walter and Jimmy Reed, while James "Tail Dragger" Jones rasps out the blues in a vocal style inspired by the immortal Howlin’ Wolf. Lurrie Bell, who has triumphed over myriad personal demons to take his place near the top of the modern-day blues pantheon, plays and sings as if every note were a proclamation of hard-won victory. And Shirley Johnson’s steamy emotionalism, spellbindingly intense yet never bathetic, cuts to the very heart and soul of what blues expression is about.

The importance of Delmark and its founder, however, transcend the music itself. Bob Koester is not only one of Chicago’s most influential label owners and music retailers; he has served as a guide and role model for generations of aspiring jazz and blues fans and businesspeople, many of whom nurtured their love and understanding of the music while working under Koester’s curmudgeonly guidance at the Jazz Record Mart. The list includes, but is not limited to, important figures such as Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records; Jim O’Neal and Amy Van Singel, co-founders of Living Blues Magazine; Michael Frank, owner of the Earwig label; and the late Bruce Kaplan of Flying Fish Records.

Today, looking back on his own success in the music business and the essential role Koester played in helping him attain that success, Iglauer marvels at "how many doors Bob opened for [so] many people to walk through," often without getting very much credit for this aspect of his contributions.

The musicians also know to pay tribute where tribute is due. In fact, the overall attitude of those who have recorded, worked for, and known Bob Koester over the years may be summed up by the accolade Jimmy Johnson gave at the conclusion of his set at Buddy’s. Flashing a bluesman’s ironic wit, Johnson signed off by telling the crowd: "We hope Mr. Bob Koester be in the record business another fifty-five years. . . long as he gonna record me and give me a bunch of money up front!"

-David Whiteis, April, 2009

Other Delmark albums of interest:
Zora Young, Tore Up From The Floor Up (784)
Learned My Lesson (748)
Jimmy Johnson, Johnson's Whacks (644)
North/South (647)
Aaron Moore, Hello World (695)
Little Arthur Duncan, Live at Rosa's Blues Lounge (DVD 1793, CD 793)
Carey & Lurrie Bell, Getting' Up (DVD 1791, CD 791)
Shirley Johnson, Blues Attack (798)
Killer Diller (757) with Robert Ward, Johnny B. Moore
Eddie Shaw, Can't Stop Now (698)
Tail Dragger, My Head Is Bald, Live at Vern's (DVD 1782, CD 782)
American People (728) with Johnny B. Moore, Billy Branch