Hundreds of people from the US and Canada are expected in Cheektowaga this weekend for a convention celebrating a musical genre its enthusiasts say gets an unfair rap.
The International Polka Convention's 47th annual convention will be hosted at the Millennium Hotel on Walden Avenue. The convention is scheduled for Friday through Sunday though a warm-up party hosted by Polish Happy Hour was booked there for Thursday evening.
As part of the weekend's events, local veteran polka musician Mark Trzepacz will be one of four people inducted into the IPA's Hall of Fame. When asked how one gets into polka music, he explained that while growing up in the old Polish neighborhoods of Buffalo's East Side, polka music was just as mainstream as rock and roll.
"It's almost as if polka music was a foregone conclusion," said Trzepacz. "Every time you would walk around in the neighborhood you would hear it playing from the homes, you would hear it playing from every street corner tavern. So to us, it was just another form of music. We didn't look at it as a separate ethnic entity."
Polka played in Buffalo tends to be decidedly Polish in its influence, most notably during Dyngus Day celebrations the day after Easter. The music's origins, however, are debated. While some believe polka to be of Polish origin, others claim the music was born in other parts of central Europe, such as the German state of Bavaria or from what is modern day Czech Republic.
The styles of polka are just as diverse and those who play the music say the IPA convention will be a chance for people to sample them.
"You go to Cleveland and you see it's all Slovenians, so it's all Slovenian-styled polkas," said Mark Kohan, editor of the Polish American Journal and also a musician. "As you go out more Midwest it's going to be more German, and in California there's a Mexican-styled polka. What's great about the IPA festival in Buffalo is they'll have a full sampling of all these kind of bands, to show these people this is what you grew up with but this is what's going on in the rest of the country."
Something else the IPA and polka enthusiasts would like outsiders to appreciate is that their music is not the stereotypical "old folks" music. Many bands have taken traditional folks songs and more recent pop songs and converted them into polka beats.
"Typically when you talk about polkas to people that are not in the know or aren't familiar with it, the first thing that tends to come to mind is a couple of big ol' fat bald guys sitting on stage, one with a tuba and the other with an accordion, and a bunch of senior citizens shuffling around on the dance floor," said Trzepacz. "Really, nothing could be further from the truth."
Look through the photos from the IPA's past conventions and events and, indeed, their celebrations draw younger audiences and musicians alike. Those who play it say like other forms of music, at polka's core is giving the people fun music by which they can dance. It is hoped that this weekend's festivities will encourage those who enjoy on Dyngus Day to like it the rest of the year.
"I'm hoping that a lot of local people who say 'I've never seen a band from Minnesota or from Chicago,'" said Kohan. "They'll come out to that and say hey, there's an event at St. Casimir's or something going on at St. Stan's, and that'll carry over."
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(Special thanks to Mark Wozniak for his assistance with the musical selections used in the radio reports).
