Copyright 2012 Polish American Journal
last update 02 May 2012
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CHICAGO - On Sunday, April 29, 2012, the International Polka Association (IPA) officially announced this year’s Polka Music Hall of Fame inductees and the 2011 Polka Music Award winners. Each year two prominent living personalities and one deceased celebrity, who have made outstanding contributions toward the advancement of the polka music industry, are elected into the Hall of Fame. An academy of over 165 qualified electors from across the country select the Hall of Fame inductees and music awards recipients. The voting is tabulated by the Institute of Industrial Relations of Loyola University of Chicago and the entire process is administered by an eleven-member Board of Trustees.
The results of the voting are as follows:
2012 IPA Polka Music Hall of Fame Inductees
Living Category – Wally Dombrowski, Craig Ebel
Deceased Category – Paul Wendinger
2011 IPA Polka Music Award Winners
Favorite Album or CD – “A New Day” by The Boys
Favorite Song – “Years Ago” by The Knewz
Favorite Instrumental Group – Dennis Polisky & the Maestro’s Men
Favorite Male Vocalist – Lenny Gomulka
Favorite Female Vocalist – Mollie Busta Lange
The induction ceremonies and award presentations will be conducted at the IPA’s Polka Hall of Fame & Music Awards Banquet held this year on August 4 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Independence, OH. The banquet is just part of the 44th Annual IPA Polka Festival and Convention that takes place from August 2 -5, 2012. During the festival, world-class polka music will be provided by Squeezebox featuring Ted and Mollie (Busta) Lange of RFD-TV fame, the IPA Tribute Band with guest Polka Hall of Famers, The Eddie Forman Orchestra, Danny Mateja & Downtown Sound, Lenny Gomulka & Chicago Push, The Boys, and The Knewz. A Polka Mass followed by a convention with election of IPA officers will take place on Sunday, August 5. For all the details about the festival, banquet, and convention, visit www.internationalpolka.com or call 1 800 TO-POLKA. To make hotel reservations, call (216) 986-9900 and mention “IPA Polka Festival” to get the special $99 room rate.
BAY CITY, Mich. - Steve Drzewicki, a Michigan State Polka Music Hall of Fame inductee and leader of the Steve Drzewicki Band,is proud to annouce the release of their 4th CD, "Steve Drzewicki Band." Featuring 18 songs the CD contains four originals, a rock & roll and country tune done polka style, and standard favorites like "Krakowiak" polka, "Na Weselu" oberek, "Open the Window" polka, "Peanuts" polka and tunes featuring fiddles and tuba.
Visit them on the internet at: www.facebook.com/thestevedrzewickiband, on email at: ssdrzewicki@charter.net or via postal mail at: Seth Drzewicki, 1928 S. Villa Ct, Essexville, MI 48732.
The strawberries and polkas will be sweeter than ever at the annual St. Florian Strawberry Festival, set for May 5 and May 6 at St. Florian Parish in Hamtramck. The festival has been a Hamtramck tradition for over 40 years, drawing thousands of people from across the metro Detroit area. It features a feast of Polish music and dance, delicious food and fun over the two days. There will be St. Florian's famous city chicken, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, meatballs, potato pancakes, pierogi and nalesniki. Of course, there will also be strawberries-in pies, tarts, pierogi, sundaes, pastries and more.
Activities and events include performances by several Polish dance ensembles, All-Class Reunion, several cash raffles, a Tin Can Auction, Handmade Quilter's Raffle, hourly 50/50 and much more. On Saturday, the popular Polish Muslims perform 5-9pm, while DJ Adam plays modern Polish dance and continental music from 7-11 p.m. On Sunday, The Alex Tone Band will perform more Polish and Euro dance 2-7 p.m. and The Kielbasa Kings take the stage 5-9 p.m.
St. Florian is the patron of firefighters and the parade and mass for firefighters and their families on Saturday, starting at 3pm is a festival showcase. Tours of historic St. Florian Church hosted By Greg Kowalski, Chairman of the Hamtramck Historical Society, are offered Sunday, hourly from 1-7 p.m.
Festival Hours are 5-11 p.m., Saturday and 1-9 p.m., Sunday. St. Florian is located at 2626 Poland St., two blocks north of Holbrook, about a half mile east of the I-75/Holbrook exit. Just look for the big steeple and prepare to have a great time. Info: Cindy 313-770-9349, www.stflorianparish.org and Facebook-St. Florian Strawberry Festival.
BUFFALO, N.Y. - The BuffaloTouch Proudly announce the long anticipated Release of their new CD, "Back in Touch, with a CD release party Friday March 30 at Potts Banquet Center, 696 South Ogden, in Buffalo. Admission is $12.00 per person and includes a Fish and Chips Dinner with extra sides available. Dinners will be served from 5-8 p.m.
For those not interested in the dinner, attend the dance for only $6.00 with BuffaloTouch and Friends playing from 7-10 p.m. and additional entertainment by the "Music Man," Kenny Krew." Doors open at 5 p.m. and you can get your copy of the new CD, "Back in Touch," at the party only for $10.00. For dinner reservations call 716.825.6575.
The Blazonczyk family invites you on a trip to Poland with special guest, Stephanie Pietrzak, July 29 - August 9, 2012. To view the brochure in PDF format, select:
I cannot exactly remember the actual first time I met Jan Cyman. Quite honestly, there are many things I can’t exactly remember from those polka days in Buffalo. I do know the year was 1967 and remember Jan’s laugh, a laugh that came from deep within and was matched with a broad smile.
Jan and Dave “Scrubby Seweryniak were members Larry Trojak’s Casinos and when I first booked them to play a dinner-dance at Dom Polski in North Tonawanda, it created friendships that never wavered.From my first St. Stephen’s Day party, December 26, 1969, that took over my parents’ basement, (this is another complete story) to dozens of dances throughout New York State, to our wedding in 1972, Jan was part of our lives. Whether it was The Dynatones, the Musicalaires, the New Brass and other bands, Jan’s musicianship, love for people and polkas, and bellowing laugh brightened not only our personal lives but also the lives of thousands in polka music.
In recent times, his being part of our annual Concertina Jam, at the Polka Fireworks festival at Seven Springs was one of the last times we were able share extended time together. When he first appeared at the Jam, I called out, “Hey Chicken Man, about time you got here!” Those of us from the Nickel City knew that nickname for him. He laughed, opened his case, picked up his horn, and said, “Let’s get going.”
The Polka World lost a great musician and we all lost a special friend, Sunday January 29, 2012.
We all have to contend with life's battles, some are small and some larger. Jim Sierzega, most recently a member of Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones, fought a life's battle that was more like an epic world war. After a long, arduous fight, the polka world lost Jim Sierzega on February 9, 2012. Jim lived with a positive and outgoing determination that everyone admired.
"A Chicago grammar school teacher with a degree in music, he performed with Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones, The Good Times and recorded with Stephanie Pietrzak," stated Bob Zima drummer with the Versatones.
"Unlike some musicians who have enormous egos, Jim was content to be a sideman," stated Ed Wolinski, who shared the stage with Jim for many years. "He never demanded the spotlight and was usually reluctant to sing." "Jim was a master trumpeter and spoke through his instrument." "Jim had a smooth, pure and almost heavenly sound emanating from his trumpet," continued Wolinski.
My personal memories of Jim are a mixture of his days on stage, his warmth and kindness off stage and the times we would spend time with him in the coffee shop in the early mornings at the Polka Fireworks festival. We will all miss him.
Jim Sierzega was an Air Force Veteran, the beloved husband of Darlene, devoted father of Zachary and Keith (Michelle) and grandfather of Brandon and Christopher. A Funeral Mass was celebrated February 14 at Incarnation Church.After a ten year absence from the NYC Metro area airwaves as well as the internet, Bill Shibilski's Polka Party recently returned to radio on Sunday evenings, 6-7 p.m. Eastern time, over the Farleigh Dickinson University radio station WFDU-FM 89.1 from Teaneck, NJ, and on the internet at www.WFDU.FM The over-air radio signal covers Northern New Jersey, parts of NYC, Nassau, Westchester and portions of Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Sullivan Counties.
Listeners may find it more convenient to listen on the internet at http://www.wfdu.fm and as a bonus will be able to hear an archived recording of the show for two weeks following each broadcast date. Email Bill Shibilski at PolkaWFDU@gmail.com.
For most of the 1980s, The Boys made their mark on the polka industry as they toured the country performing their signature sound. The material they recorded on their albums, especially the hit recordings Boys Nite Out (1988) and Boys Will Be Boys (1989), is still enjoyed and requested by many of their fans, even today. During the years after the group disbanded in 1990, The Boys could only get together occasionally to perform at special reunion events. In 2008 however, circumstances allowed the band to start performing again on a more regular basis. Now with all the key elements in place, The Boys, comprised of Mike Matousek, Al Puwalski, Frank Liszka, Jeff Yash, Mike Evan, and Dave Morris, are proud to announce the release of their first new recording in 22 years! Aptly entitled A New Day, the new CD features five new original tunes, some great cover tunes crooned by Polka Hall of Famer Frank Liszka, and a few good old Polish-style melodies all performed in that familiar Boys style.
The recording boasts 16 selections in all. To get your copy of A New Day, send your $15 check made out to Mike Matousek, 8372 Williamstowne Drive, Millersville, MD 21108-1066.
For more information about the recording, the band members, booking the group, and The Boys's ; performance schedule, visit www.TheBoysBand.com. DJs and IJs interested in promotional copies of A New Day should email their inquiries to mike@TheBoysBand.com. It’s A New Day for The Boys!
Bel-Aire Records has released the 1984 Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones Polka Thriller album on CD and a new CD by Stephanie entitled This is Polka Music.
Polka Thriller, originally offered on vinyl in 1984, has been remastered and repackaged and features Versatones' hits like "I Love Wanda," "Hey Pretty Girl," "How Can I Love Her," and nine other great songs, recorded between 1978 and 1984.
Musicians on the tracks include: Joe Dudek, Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr., Jerry Darlak, Jerry Tokarz, Rich Tokarz, Ed Wolinski, Jim Sierzega, Lenny Gomulka, Jerry Rajewski and Rich "Sudzy" Cerajewski.
Polka Thriller is on Bel-Aire Records - The Vintage Collection.
This is Polka Music by Stephanie by "America's Polka Sweetheart," contains twelve songs, with three originals by Stephanie, "Please Come Back To Me," "Step by Step," and "Ty Ry Ryt Kum" oberek. With plenty of honky style and concertina, this new CD celebrates Stephanie as a 2010 inductee to the Polka Music Hall of Fame.
Musicians joining Stephanie Pietrzak on this recording include: Eddie Madura, Jim Sierzega, Rich "Sudzy" Cerajewski, Dave Kurdziel and Wayne Sienkowski.
Contact BEL-AIRE ENTERPRISES, 7208 S. Harlem Avenue, Bridgeview, Illinois 60455 or visit the website at: www.belairerecords.com.
Archer Recordings just released a CD by the Father, Mother and three sons of the Okrzesik family. Father, Ted O. Sr., newly inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame, is on drums and sings "Up the Hill" polka. Mother Gennie O sings duets with her husband Ted, Sr. on "Twelve Angels" waltz and "Rocks and Stones" polka, and with son Ted Jr. on "Polkas in the Moonlight."
Ted O Jr. dominates ths CD as he sings "Windy City Brass" polka, "Nine Horsemen" oberek, "Why Me?," "Ashes of Love, "Idzie Lala," "Hosa Horasa," "Three Eggs," "Hang It Up," "Wanting You" and "Who Stole the Kiszka?" Danny O is on concertina and Johnny O on second trumpet are also heard on vocal duets.
Before Stas Bulanda went on his own, he performed with Windy City Brass. He sings "What Should I Do?," and "Play Musicians" polka. All twenty-two selections on this CD are superbly done.Ray "Ray Jay" Jarusinski has been on the polka stage for over 40 years and his 2008 induction into the IPA Polka Hall of Fame was a well-deserved honor to this musician and vocalist.
To commemorate his Hall of Fame induction, Ray Jay has released a Hall of Fame CD featuring 24 songs from the 1960s to 1990s that have never been available on CD. Carousels' favorites like "Just Another Polka," "Junior's" polka, "What a Girl" polka "Hot Dogs & Cabbage" polka, "Crying Girl" waltz, "Oj Nie Nie" oberek and more. Also on the CD is the "Batman" polka, recorded by the Bellhops Orchestra and features a young Ray Jay on vocals.
BUFFALO, N.Y. Jerry M. Darlak, a Grammy-winning member of the Polka Music Hall of Fame, died September 8, 2010 one week shy of his 64th birthday.
JERRY DARLAK PAJ POLKA MAGAZINE TRIBUTE FRONT PAGE
CHICAGO -Bel-Aire Enterprises has
launched a new website and store, Belairerecords.com.
Offering a complete catalog of polka recordings and other musical
items, Belairerecords.com will also be providing reviews and writeups
on recordings, photos and band history. Be sure to visit the site and
look around. Check back often for monthly specials and featured Items. Belairerecords.com
There are two universal truths about accordions. The first is that the accordion is almost always associated with polka music. The second: a concertina is the same thing.
To what do we owe the association of the accordion with Polish dance music? The accordion is not exclusive to the polka. Its sweet, reedy sound has been the musical backdrop for scenarios of lonely cowboys in the Texas Panhandle, romantic interludes under the Eiffel Tower, and Cajun house parties deep in Louisiana's swamps. Surely accordions are not played just by Polish Americans.
There is a mystique about the accordion, albeit often a negative one. When Madison Avenue wants to demonstrate cool versus uncool, it sometimes calls upon the accordion to demonstrate the latter. But the accordion was a respectable instrument until the advent of rock n roll. Songs of love and devotion were then sung over the electrified strains of guitars, and teen idols, who played the six-stringed talisman of rebellion, created a charisma for themselves equal to that of guys who drove fast cars.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, accordions regained some lost ground. Credit is due a counterculture movement in the rock n roll industry. Seeking an alternative to the guitar, bands incorporated the accordion into some of their music. Among the bands and musicians not afraid to let the instrument demonstrate its versatility were the Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, David Lindley, Los Lobos, even the Grateful Dead.
And it is the Irish who can lay claim to the first recordings of accordion and concertina. Traditional Irish dance music played on fiddle, uilleann pipes, concertina, accordion, flute, tin whistle, tenor banjo, pianos, and combinations thereof was captured on cylinder recordings before the portable piano was heard playing polkas on record.
Still, if only by association, the accordion belongs to the polka.
The accordion is, for all practical purposes, a portable piano, powered by air driven over tuned reeds. And hence its popularity: it is easier to carry an accordion than a piano down to a church basement wedding reception.
The accordion's popularity among polka bands can be attributed to that fact. Although most polka bands are dedicated to their art form, they must play a variety of music for bread-and-butter receptions, dances, and parties. It was not until the late 1970s, when synthesized keyboards replaced the accordion as the portable keyboard, that gig-playing polka bands could make use of both instruments. Most such bands today have both an accordion and a synthesized keyboard.
The concertina lacks the accordion's keyboard. It is usually small and hexagonal, with buttons to be played by both hands as they push and pull to work the bellows.
The early polka bands in the United States made little use of the accordion or none at all. They played what has become known as village music on violins, bass violins, a clarinet, and a bowed cello or bass. One of the early band leaders was Franciszek Dukla of Chicago, who with vocalist Frank Zielinski began a recording career for Victor Records on December 7, 1926, with the song Na Okolo Ciemny Las. Around the Dark Forest as it's known in English, is part of the standard literature for today's polka bands.
How the music of Franciszek Dukli Wiejska Banda (Frank Dukla's Village Band) evolved into today's polkas has become a debate among academics. It is believed that Polish musicians adopted and adapted the accordion and concertina to fit popular music styles within their communities. To trace the use of these instruments in today's polka bands, we must look to early recordings by Polish artists.
The earliest American Polish-language recordings were made by the Berliner Company in 1897, featuring a tenor with piano accompaniment. It wasn't until the next decade, when recording techniques had improved, that full instrumentation could be added.
The first recording of either the concertina or the accordion by a Polish artist is hard to trace. Columbia did not begin a separate numbering system for ethnic recording series until 1908; Victor's began in 1912. Apparently the first known Polish artist to record the accordion was Jan Wanat, on the Victor label in 1917. Wanat's discs of traditional Polish dances, played in a conventional, formal style, were hot sellers. His accordion solos were played on a custom instrument that brought out the bass.
Early Polish recordings can be classified as folksong, light and grand opera, patriotic and traditional song and dance, popular music played and sung by Poles, and dialogue, mainly comedy skits. At the time many of these recordings were made, the polka was very popular, especially outside Polish communities. A majority of Polish folksongs (particularly songs of war, such as parade music and marches) were already in cut time, the 2/4 polka tempo. Other Polish folk and dance songs the mazurka, krakowiak, polonaise, and kujawiak were easily adapted as polkas, obereks, and waltzes, which are the dances still popular today among Polish Americans.
The recording companies sought Polish artists whose music would appeal to newcomers who yearned for music of the homeland, but the record executives were at a loss as to what music that was. According to Alvin Sajewski, son of Wladyslaw Sajewski, founder of the W.H. Sajewski Music Company in Chicago, the record executives knew there was a huge ethnic market but did not know how to tap it:
The records were by people from the city who liked the classical singers, the high-pitched sopranos. People wanted simple pretty melodies, but they would buy these records because there was at least something Polish on them. The people wanted folksongs (Spottswood 1982).
In 1923 Columbia recorded a duma, a waltz by Henry Lewandowski. This old-time fiddler led the way for newer bands that were beginning to play polkas and other Polish dances in a livelier and less formal fashion.
One of Columbia's hottest artists was the Ukrainian fiddler Pawlo Humeniuk. The company polonized Humeniuk by changing his name to Pawel Humeniak, and with Polish vocalists, his records sold well in Chicago. The January 1927 recording of Zareczyny, Czesc. The Engagement, Part , with singer Ewgen Zukowsky was the genesis of the Polish American polka. The playing technique of the anonymous accordionist is almost identical to that used today.
Columbia and its competitors Victor, Okeh, Odeon, Brunswick, and Vocalion realized more than modest profits from the hybrid Polish American polka. During the 1930s the Polish recording business exploded. In 1931 Victor alone released 176 recordings in its Polish series, including 38 by village orchestras (playing what is known variously as Gorale, Mountain, Highland, or Old Country music) and 12 by what Richard J. Spottswood has called; new-wave polka bands; the forerunners of today's bands. These new-wave recordings, made primarily by Ignacy Podgorski from Philadelphia, and by Edward Królikowski of Bridgeport, Connecticut, blended brass, accordion, and violin and combined; the energy of the village orchestras with a smoother, more emphatic melody line; (Spottswood 1982).
Podgorski, whose popularity extended into the 1940s, also sold sheet music of his material, much of which was based on the music of the village bands.
One early artist who greatly influenced the hybrid Polish American polka was a concertina player and singer from Chicago, Bruno Rudzinski. His work, like Lewandowski's and Humeniuk's, was less formal a mix of traditional Polish folk melodies influenced by American jazz. Rudzinski's recordings made him the Polish Spike Jones of his day, as he would often repeat or forget lines and start the vocals over again.
His first recording, Przyszedl Chlop do Karczmy; A Man Came to the Saloon, was on the Victor label and released in 1928.
It 'wasn't until the late 1940s, however, that the concertina made its way into mainstream polka music. The instrument was promoted by bandleader Eddie Zima, probably the most famous of all polka concertina players. He was born in Chicago in 1923 and began playing the concertina by ear when he was six. His record of Circus polka, which became a hit in the nation's Polish communities, introduced hundreds of thousands to both Zima and the concertina. He recorded for the Capitol, RCA, Dana, Chicago, and Jay Jay labels, and his orchestra later formed the nucleus of the still-popular Ampol-Aires. He is considered the godfather of Chicago-style polkas, which are slower and bouncier than the traditional Eastern style, named after the big bands from the East Coast that played these zesty polkas from the 1940s until the late 1960s.
Zima influenced a multitude of musicians who found the concertina a natural for the polka. Among those he inspired was LiÂ’l Wally Jagiello, the son of Polish immigrants, who often sang with Zima's band at picnics in Chicago. Although Jagiello's early recordings made use of the accordion, he is most famous for his work on the concertina, and for promoting Chicago-style polka to national prominence. His recording of Zosia; (ophie) so startled some disc jockeys that they thought it defective, but the song's slow, heartfelt tempo won it nationwide popularity. Today, Chicago-style polkas dominate the polka recording industry.
Jagiello in turn has inspired many of today';s virtuoso concertina players, including Wally Maduzia, Lenny Maynard, Rich Benkowski, Al Piatkowski, Richie Kurdziel, Scrubby Seweryniak, Bill Czerniak Sr. and Jr., Ronny Marcusiuk, Tom Kula, and Teddy Kiewicz.
References
Breathnach, B. 1971. Folk Music and Dances of Ireland. Dublin: Talbot Press.
Camp, T. 1992. Weird Al finds a vein of fun in rock parodies. Milwaukee Journal, July 7.
Ethnic Recordings in America. 1982. Washington, D.C.: American Folklife Center, library of Congress.
Spottswood, R. 1982. The Sajewski Story; in Ethnic Recordings in America: A Neglected Heritage. Washington, D.C.: American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Treasured Polish Folk Songs with Translation.
1953. Minneapolis: Polanie Publishing Co.
Mark Kohan is editor-in-chief of the national monthly newspaper Polish American Journal and was leader of the Steel City Brass for 28 years; he plays both accordion and concertina. With the permission of the publisher, the article was adapted from Squeezebox Jam, a publication of the Polish American Festival held in August 1992 in Cheektowaga, New York. The annual event is sponsored by the Town of Cheektowaga (a suburb of Buffalo), and made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Copyright 2011 Polish American Journal
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