Sax-Squatch - the Appeal of the Giant Saxophone

By now, many reading this know I am a record collector with close to 2000 recordings on both vinyl and CD.   However, I also play saxophone, and have done so since my junior high school years.   Being both a collector of vintage music and a sax player myself, there are some things over the years I have gotten interested in, and the monster saxophones are one of those.

This is from my high school years many moons ago - I played baritone sax in the school marching band then.

Do any of you remember from about 20 years ago Tim Allen's hit show Home Improvement?  Tim played a character in the show who had his own fictional home improvement show by the name of Tim Taylor, and anyone who watched it would know that the character he played was the original "gearhead."  If he saw a souped-up '60's muscle car, for instance, his reaction to the power of the engine revving was a sound like "Arr-arr-arr!"  We boys like our toys, and although not all of us are "gearheads," there is something about an object of our interest being bigger, more powerful, and exuding immensity - it's a guy thing.  And, what gets me transfixed is seeing the biggest of the big as far as the musical instrument I specialize in.

For the most part, when people think of saxophones they think alto, tenor, and baritone (although with the arrival on the scene of a musack-tooting, long-haired scheisskopf by the name of Kenny G, more people know about the soprano saxophone too - I suppose something good besides the effect of Sominex has to come from Kenny G!).  However, there are a whole range of other saxes besides these, including what used to be the elusive bass sax.  The bass saxophone is about 4 feet tall, and in my own music collection I have recordings of a lot of ensembles that have featured it, mastered by such people as Adrian Rollini, Joe Rushton, and Boyd Raeburn among others.  In this day and age, I have a good familiarity with the bass sax, although I still want one and love its sound.  However, there are bigger creatures in the saxophone Serengeti than the bass, and we'll talk about those now.

The mighty contrabass saxophone, this one manufactured by Orsi in Italy

 

The first of the big boys is a 7-foot behemoth, the contrabass sax.  The contrabass has been around for several decades, although it was rarely seen except maybe in some 1970's recordings of jazz artist Anthony Braxton.  However, in the late 1990's, a company in Italy called Orsi patented a new model of the contrabass, and recordings of it began to pop up all over the place.   One of the groups that featured it at around that time was a small dance band called the Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra, as its leader, Don Stephens, acquired one.  Since then, it has been featured as well by young and talented composer Adam Gilberti in his works The Genesis Concert and Dragon's First Flight, the latter featuring himself and three other well-known contrabass talents - young Blaise Garza, Dr. Jay Easton, and Grant Green.  

 

Performance of Adam Gilberti's Dragon's First Flight from around 2004, with (l to r) Gilberti, Grant Green, Dr. Jay Easton, and Blaise Garza.

 

You will notice from the above picture that although these are four varieties of contrabass (and Green's subcontra - more on that shortly), a couple of them look different than the others.  Reason for that entails a company in Germany, Benedikt Eppelsheim, which in the late 1990's patented a new type of low-register sax called a Tubax, which is smaller, more compact, and easier to manipulate wind to play than the conventional contrabass.  The Tubax comes in two varieties - one is an E-flat contrabass, and the second is the B-flat subcontrabass.  Both are also relatively more economical to purchase than the Orsi conventional contrabass, although they still run a pretty penny.  

 

 

  Eppelsheim Tubaxes - top is the B-flat subcontra, and below is the E-flat contra.

 

 The Tubax has also encouraged the more widespread use of lower-register saxes, and now they are starting to be more readily available.

 

The ultimate saxophone though is an elusive 9-foot monster called the B-flat subcontrabass.   This grandaddy of saxes was not believed to have existed prior to the past 20 years, although there is some 1950's footage of a Steve Allen clip in which it appears one was played - it took 3 guys to play it in that clip.  The clip unfortunately is not easy to find unless you have access to the old "Steve Allen Shows" of the 1950's, but it is perhaps the oldest footage available of a giant sax.  In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the conventional and compact subcontras, and a Brazilian-based company, J'Elle Stainer, finally built both - the compact subcontra was manufactured by them back in 2010, and the conventional subcontra (over 9 feet tall!) was just recently introduced.  Both of them are something to behold, and hearing one of them is even more of an experience!

 

Italian saxophone virtuoso Attilio Berni playing the J'Elle Stainer compact subcontrabass sax

 

The conventional subcontrabass saxophone manufactured by J'Elle Stainer.

 

The conventional subcontra was recently featured with Attilio Berni, an Italian saxophonist.  Berni is a collector of many odd and unusual saxes, and he features many of them on a tour he does called Saxophobia (An American counterpart, Rob Verdi, has undertaken a similar project).  Being able to see this legendary horn in a concert setting is quite an experience, as the thing practically dominates the stage.   Eppelsheim has capitalized on this as well, and now they offer their own versions of both the contrabass and subcontrabass conventionals.  The Eppelsheim models vary in design somewhat from the J'Elle Stainers, but they do produce a crisp sound and I believe are available at a somewhat more affordable price.   

 

The conventional B-flat subcontrabass saxophone manufactured by Benedikt Eppelsheim.

 

If you are looking for recordings of the contra, subcontra, and tubax, here are some recommendations.  Obviously, if you are into more of the vintage big dance band material, the Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra are the best option for that.   The Nuclear Whales are no longer together as a unit, but they do have several CD's as well as a VHS concert still available - their later CD's feature the contrabass.  From more of a jazz perspective, I would suggest Scott Robinson's CD Thinking Big, as it is one of the best recordings of classic jazz as played with the contrabass.  Also, the Attilio Berni and Rob Verdi Saxophobia concerts feature some good music on them, mostly dance band and classic jazz - Berni's is only available from Italy, and you will need to play the DVD's of the concert on a computer, as a conventional DVD player will not play those.  On the classical side of things, Adam Gilberti's Genesis Concert is a definite requisite - Gilberti, a gifted young composer from California, not only features the contrabass sax and both Tubaxes in his compositions, but also a host of other unique instrumentation - octobass flutes, etc.  Finally, if you want vintage, the person to look for is Anthony Braxton, who in the 1960's and 1970's recorded several avante garde jazz LP's featuring the contrabass saxophone.   Also, Sigurd Rascher deserves mention - his recordings date back to the 1950's, and he was a pioneer of the saxophone and an early contemporary of its inventor, Adolph Sax.  Rascher's works for saxophone are some of the first concert music recorded for the instrument, and he also was an early advocate of the contrabass, as you will hear it on his orchestra and ensemble recordings.  

 

In short, the contrabass and subcontrabass saxophones are some interesting territory to explore, and I am sure that if you are not familiar, it will be an interesting experience for you.   Take care until next time.   

 

 

 

Debunking Appalachian Stereotypes

Within the past year, certain high-profile "neocons" have seen fit to pick on mountain people for some reason.   About a year ago, for example, commentator Bill O'Reilly made a scornful statement about Appalachian culture that honestly was uncalled for and just reprehensible.  In April 2012, for instance, he said "The culture in Appalachia harms the children almost beyond repair.  Their parents are screwed up. Kids get married at 16 or 17, their parents are drunks.  There’s a culture of poverty and ignorance there...You know, I don’t want to rebuild the infrastructure of Appalachia I want to leave it pristine, it’s beautiful." (Lisa King, "Bill O'Reilly's Scorn for Appalachia Still Echoes in the Mountains," at http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/appalachian-chronicles/2012/apr/24/bill-oreillys-scorn-appalachia-still-echoes-mounta/) This stupid, ignorant rant of O'Reilly, the son of a drunk Irishman (no offense to the Irish, but O'Reilly's grandfather was a bootlegger), still reverberates like the aftershock of an electric fence in a rainstorm for many of us, and had he said that against Blacks, he would have had Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson suing the crap out of him (Jackson and Sharpton have no credibility with me either, as both of them are racist plantation pimps).  Also, despite being supposedly "pro-life," it is scary that O'Reilly almost sounds like Margaret Sanger, the eugenics-driven, gold-digging hussy who founded Planned Parenthood and called Appalachian people and others "human weeds."  But, if that wasn't enough, then we have a couple of months back Pat Robertson, who made similar statements when he said this - "That's the big problem, especially in Appalachia. They don't know about birth control. They just keep having babies.  You see a string of all these little ragamuffins, and not enough food to eat and so on, and it's desperate poverty."  (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pat-robertson-says-birth-control-very-important-to-limit-appalachian-ragamu).  The tragic thing about Robertson's statement is that he is supposed to be a Christian minister, but I am not seeing much Christlikeness in his attitude when he more or less wants to eradicate a whole population of people.  What is even worse is the fact that much of those stereotypical comments and idiotic statements are wrong, and I am living proof that they are.  Bottom-line is, it seems as if "hillbilly bashing" has become popular today among conservatives and liberals alike, and I for one am about sick of it.

Bigot #1 - Bill O'Reilly, the bootlegger's grandson

 

Bigot #2 - the compromising, hypocritical and half-senile televangelist Pat Robertson

 

Bashing mountain people and their culture is nothing new for the "upper crust" in society, as they have been doing it for generations.  Dr. Loyal Jones, the noted Appalachian scholar and retired professor of Appalachian Studies at Berean College in KY, notes this when he talks about the way that Appalachian people are often portrayed when he sums it up well by saying it this way - " Poor rural people are about the only ones in the country that you can make fun of all you want to with near impunity. Political correctness fades away when the subject is a poor hillbilly. Therefore they make wonderful scapegoats." (Loyal Jones, "The Poor In Rural American Are Not Laughing," at http://www.ruralstrategies.org/poor-rural-america-are-not-laughing)  Jones, in his excellent book, Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999) notes that this type of bigotry was often carried out in the name of "religion," in that many early "missionaries" were not sent so much to proclaim the Gospel, but rather as "agents of uplift" in order to 'civilize the savages."  He writes on page 4 of the book the following:

"In my view, no group in the country has aroused more suspicion and alarm among mainstream Christians than have Upland Christians, and never have so many missionaries been sent to save so many Christians as has been the case in this region.  Mainline Christians believed strongly that Appalachian people had to be saved from themselves - not only from their ignorance of standard educational matters but especially from their cultural values and native religion."

 

This sentiment is echoed by other capable scholars, such as Dr. Ralph Hood, professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga who has also worked extensively among the serpent-handling Christians of the region, when he notes in his book, Them That Believe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) that in particular regard to the serpent-handlers there has been a lot of misrepresentation and unfair treatment by the secular media (both liberal and conservative, I might add!) and unfair, unjustified stereotypes abound (Hood, p. 3).  What Hood says about serpent-handlers in particular applies as well to Appalachian culture in general.  One stereotype in particular is this whole stupid thing that we are "inbred" or something, and honestly, that does get old to many of us who are native to the region.  One of my own family's genealogists, Carolyn White, addressed this in the family history she authored of my mother's folks from Dry Fork, WV, entitled The Family Album - Dry Fork District (Aurora, WV:  Bookmakers, 2005) in a section entitled "A Word About Kissing Cousins" on pages 5-6.  Carolyn says (rightly) that the circumstances of the time - isolation, limited transportation, etc. - may have facilitated some "kissing cousin" marriages to happen, but by and large they were often distant cousins who were not closely related (lest Appalachia gets a bad rap for that, it also happened in the European aristocracy with more frequency, so there!).  Like she says, I too am tired of Appalachia in general - and my home state of West Virginia in particular - getting a bad rap for this and being the object of jokes and judgemental allegations.  And, for those who make those jokes and allegations (including you, O'Reilly!) I say this - shut up, grow up, and do something more constructive with your time.  And, I give some of those wags the ultimate insult - some of our relatives married their cousins out of necessity, yet some of the critics molest their own kids out of choice, so what is their excuse??  

Now that I have stated the case, it is time for my commentary.  When Trayvon Martin, who was a common street thug, was shot by George Zimmerman here in FL when Martin attacked him, the press made a huge stink out of it - Zimmerman might as well have been Hitler, because the "race card" was played to the extreme.  Many Blacks and others can do anything they want, get away with it, and if you question them, you are called "racist" for doing so.  Yet, I don't hear people doing the same for poor Appalachian people when they are maligned - where are Jesse, Al, and all the other plantation pimps there??  Take for example my good friend Verlin Short.  Verlin lives in the town of Mayking, KY, and he is a hard-working, devoutly Christian man who loves his family, minds his own business, and is just a good guy.  Yet, he has been arrested on many occasions, and you know what his crime was?   It was taking up a rattlesnake in a church service!!  Seriously??  You have Islamic terrorists blowing up buildings, Black street thugs killing their own people even, and yet Verlin gets a bad rap for practicing his religious convictions???  Obama, our worthless President who wants us to attack a country (Syria) which poses no security threat to us, had his nose all in the Trayvon thing, but where was he when Verlin was unjustly imprisoned?   My guess - he was out playing golf and sipping Mai-Tais on a beach in the Caribbean somewhere (at taxpayer expense I might add!) and could have cared less.  Well, here is what I have to say about that one - if I had a brother, I would be honored if he was half the man Verlin Short is! What I have said here is not going to be considered "politically correct," and quite honestly, I could care less.  Every race of people, and every culture, has its good and its bad individuals - there are good Blacks, and there are others for whom the "n" word fits, and there are good Appalachian-Americans and others who would be considered "White trash."  Problem is, this day and age the bad behavior of some groups of people is glorified, while the good people of other groups are villified.  Really??   A little consistency might be nice here, folks. 

I was born and raised in West Virginia, a fact I appreciate more as a get older.  I regret however that in my younger days, due to the idiotic stereotypes of our people I have addressed above, I was actually ashamed to say where I was from - often I would tell people I was from western Maryland (I grew up 14 miles south of the Maryland state line) or from Pittsburgh.   Looking back on that now, I was stupid in doing that, and when we West Virginians have to lie about where we are from, it reinforces idiots like Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson in their accusations and stereotypes.   If you are from West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, western North Carolina, northern Georgia, or southeastern Ohio, be proud of who you are and stick up for the place of your birth!  God put you there for a reason, so there is nothing to be ashamed of.  This is especially for younger Appalachian kids and youth - your friends may make fun of who you are, but you have nothing to be ashamed of;  who you are is a person of rich heritage, strong resolve, driving ingenuity, and good values, something much of society lacks today.  I am politically conservative too, like O'Reilly and Robertson claim to be, but I also remember who I am.  It is time all of us who are from the Appalachians do likewise.  God bless until next time.

 

Good TV May Be Making a Comeback!

For those of you who get the Sunday paper and that little insert inside called the Parade, you may have noticed this past week on the cover the picture of four beard-adorned and camo-clad men standing in a Louisiana swamp.   The four men are part of a family called the Robertsons in West Monroe, LA, and for millions of people in the US like myself, they are one of the most famous families on television, thanks in large part to a show featuring them on A&E Network called Duck Dynasty.   Although it has only been on for a little over a year, I just discovered it a couple of months ago when I was on the toilet and heard the TV - some old geezer (whom I later discovered to be none other than the crazy uncle, Silas "Uncle Si" Robertson, who is a fan favorite with good reason!) was talking about stopping to smell the roses and getting nailed on the schnozz by a big bee when doing so (his advice - stop and smell the roses quickly or you will get nailed!) and this intrigued me.  I discovered that day something many of my own family had been raving about, and instantly became a Duck Dynasty fan.  

The Robertsons of "Duck Dynasty - (l to r) "Uncle Si", Miss Kay, Jase, Korie (Willie's wife), Willie (seated), and Robertson patriarch Phil.

 

 

Duck Dynasty indicates something that similar shows - notably History Channel's Swamp People and Animal Planet's Call of the Wildman, both of which are personal favorites - airing in recent years are revealing about the public;  people like clean entertainment that they can relate to.  A bunch of gay kids on that sick show "Glee" just doesn't cut it for most, and bad screeching called "music" on these shows like American Idol and The Voice make for pretty faces with no talent.  With the Robertsons, what you see is what you get, and they are who America has said it loves.   And, the trend is repeated on other channels too - a whole network, as a matter of fact, features traditional values and has an audience of its own, and that network is RFD-TV.  On there, a good variety show called Larry's Country Diner features an equally-funny comedienne called Nadine whose witty repertoire will have you in stitches for hours.  One of Nadine's pearls of wisdom is this - "Smoking won't send you to hell, but it sure makes it smell like you've visited!" as well as gems of spirituality such as "Some people think they can sow their wild oats all week and then pray for crop failure on Sunday."  The appeal of these shows - in particular to people brought up in small-town America like myself - has always been there (remember The Beverly Hillbillies, the Waltons, and Little House on the Prairie?) but it's as if there has been a resurgence over the past few years or so.  Hopefully it continues!

 

The one and only Nadine, from "Larry's Country Diner."

 

This whole phenomenon  of rural-based entertainment goes back some years ago too, with characters both fact and fiction.   Remember The Red Green Show that used to be on PBS, for instance?  That was hilarious!  I can still hear Red Green (played by Canadian actor/comedian Steve Smith) prattle in his gruff voice, "Duct tape - the handyman's secret weapon," and along with Lawrence Welk, Red was a regular Saturday night fixture in our house for several years.  It is really unfortunate that PBS didn't see the benefits (especially with the wildly ascending popularity of the aforementioned Robertsons!) of keeping Red Green on the air, but fortunately there are DVD's!

Red Green and his ever-handy roll of "the handyman's secret weapon."

 

 

Then of course, mention must be made of the Blue Collar boys - Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, and Bill Engvall.   They still have a huge following, and are some of the most talented and hilarious comedians out there today.   Now, they have become animated in a show on CMT called Bounty Hunters, and are as funny as cartoons as they are as real people.  Again, people do relate to this stuff, and only Hollywood is too stupid to realize it - they keep trying to push agendas (like sticking the gratuitous "gay" character now in almost every show, which really makes no sense!)  rather than entertain anyway, so Hollywood is becoming more irrelevant because it is out-of-touch with most normal people.  Perhaps the new center of American entertainment should be in either the South or Midwest, where quality programming could be made like Duck Dynasty which would impart values that many of us who live in the Land of Normal (as opposed to New York, Washington, DC, and LA) can relate to.  Keep praying and pushing for good programming, and maybe one day the chuckleheads at the big entertainment companies will finally get the hint. 

 

Polka 101 - A Lesson!

You will notice that I do a specific subject followed by a more general entry, but do not ask me why!  At this point I am killing some time at the library at my university as class let out sooner and I have nothing better to do, so thought I would share here today.

To begin, let's see...my new CD acquisitions are worth mentioning.  This past Friday I received six of the seven CD collection of Lawrence Duchow's orchestra, with recordings collectively dated between 1938-1952.  It would probably be a good idea to explain a little about who Lawrence Duchow was, as he is also an important pioneer as far as my music collection is concerned.   Duchow had an early polka orchestra that had its genesis in Wisconsin in the 1920's, although most of his available recorded work comes a few years later.  He was similar in style to some other orchestras who were his contemporaries - "Whoopie John" Wilfahrt, Harold Loeffelmacher's Six Fat Dutchmen, etc. from neighboring Minnesota - in that he played primarily German-style polkas which reflected the tastes of the upper Midwest demographic (and still does today).  However, he is also pivotal in dance band history too, as it was people like him that influenced and was contemporaneous with another young German Lawrence - that last name you'd know as Welk! - from the Dakotas.  And, he adopted the format accordingly - his essentially was a polka big band.  Another similar orchestra from the same area - Romy Gosz - was even more like a traditional dance band (I want to say Gosz played trumpet with Duchow for a short time, but I could be wrong on that, so I need to check the polka history book I have at home to verify that fact).  Any rate, I got to sample the CD's I received, and he did have a fairly good-sounding group.   Gosz will be my next acquisition in the summer, as there are 8 CD's of vintage material from him I want to get my hands on too.  If you are interested in getting some of this vintage stuff (and it is collectible!) the place that has it is www.polkamart.com , as it is their label, PolkaLand Recordings, that reissued it.  However, a word of caution about ordering from them - be prepared to wait a while!  As a matter of fact, you may be waiting up to four weeks for the discs, so hopefully it isn't life-or-death to get them!  On the positive though, they do have some fantastic collections, and they are definitely worth a look.  If you want the CD's faster though, I want to recommend a better source I have also shopped with for many years, and that is my good friend Cy Pfannenstein at www.cysmusic.com.  Located in Avon, Minnesota, Cy will hook you up with any polka recording if it is in existence, and he is good about getting them to you in a timely manner as well.

early pioneer polka bandleader Lawrence Duchow

Brave Combo leader Carl Finch with Miss WestFest 2012

 Polka music is one of those things that is greatly misunderstood unfortunately by many, who think it is a bunch of drunk Germans at Octoberfest playing accordions and tubas while clad in lederhosen.  However, polka is a multi-faceted musical genre that is also very cross-cultural.  In the US alone, there are at least 12 different types of polka music, and each is pretty much the product of its ethnic audience, geographic location, and other factors.  Even the instrumentation isn't the same.  Take, for instance, a group like Brave Combo.  This polka band is probably the closest thing polka has ever come to a fusion with rock music, and its leader, Carl Finch, looks like the product of an explosion that fused Willy Nelson and Elton John together.  They are top-notch musicians, although not my cup of tea personally.  Then there are the Polka Nuts from Brighton, Colorado.  Largely the creation of the Gaschler family almost 30 years ago, who are descended from Volga German immigrants from Russia who settled the Rockies, they are the most famous example of a group that plays "Dutch Hop," a style of polka that is unique to the Volga Germans and features the tsymbl, or hammered dulcimer.  Next up is Richie Yurkovich and Polkarioty from Willard, Wisconsin.   Yurkovich is in true Frankie Yankovic tradition a proud Slovene-American who plays the Slovene-flavored "Cleveland-style" polkas, and his is also a phenomenal band with excellent showmanship.   And, if that isn't enough, you have a fusion of the styles - Eddie Korosa, Jr., from Chicago plays a very rich-sounding polka repertiore that synthesizes Slovenian and Polish flavors (Korosa's was also the polka band that John Candy led as "The Kenosha Kickers" in that first Home Alone movie back in 1989).  Then you have the traditional oomp-pa-pa sound of the upper Midwest - Karl and the Country Dutchmen, Barefoot Becky and her Ivanhoe Dutchmen from Iowa, and a host of others.  Texas is a unique area for polka bands that no one would  have expected, yet in central Texas near the hill country there lives a substantial population of people whose ancestors spoke Czech, Slovak, or German, and they also produced some great bands too - one that comes to mind that is one of my favorites is John Karderli's Seven Dutchmen Orchestra, based near New Braunfels, as well as Roy Haag's Little Fishermen of Texas from the same area.  And, these bands can be family affairs too - the Dujka Brothers from Brenham, TX, as well as the Bacas from around Fayetteville, TX, whose history goes back a hundred years.  One of the most interesting groups I came across from Texas though that deserves mention is the Shiner Hobo Band.  I first saw these guys on the "Big Joe Polka Show" sometime back around 2006, and they got my attention.  Consisting of about almost 40 musicians, most of them old Czech farts in their 60's and 70's led by a "conductor" with a toilet plunger for a baton, they are both talented and also amusing to watch - watching them was like watching a polka festival collide with the Philadelphia Mummer's Parade.  

The Shiner Hobos, circa 1957

The Shiners, like many long-established Texas polka bands among the Czech-speaking community, have a history that dates back over a century.  They are an institution in themselves and are worth checking out at www.shinerhoboband.com when you get the opportunity.

Also worth mentioning is of course the Polish contribution.  Polka is after all a Polish word, and my in-laws who are Polish would probably skin me alive if I didn't discuss some of that here.   There are two types of American Polish polka - one originated on the East Coast in New England and New York and is essentially polka big band music, and the other is called "Chicago Push" and originated with Polish communities in the Midwest, particularly Milwaukee and Chicago.  Of the two, I prefer the East Coast version, which has as its luminaries people such as 19 Grammy-holding Jimmy Sturr of Florida, NY, as well as now-departed legends such as Rich Bobinski, Larry Chesky, and Walt Solek.  In addition to standard big band instrumentation, East Coast Polish polka bands feature more minor-key songs (probably from close contact with the Ukrainians to the East, which we'll be talking about momentarily too) and is also noted for it's use of the piano arpeggios.  The "Chicago Push" variety, on the other hand, is more small-ensemble, adaptable, and a little more raw; to me it sounds similar to the Tejano music that the Mexicans in Texas play - its big stars include the late Eddie Blazonczyk and Lenny Gomulka.  And, speaking of Ukrainians, there is a lucrative Ukrainian polka community in mid-Canada, in particular in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and I came across that back in 2006 as well.  One of the groups, the Ukrainian Old-Timers of Alberta, have been around for many years and do have several good recordings.  Scandinavian-Americans have also produced some good polka, although it sounds somewhat like a brassier version of the Slovenian style.  Polka is a universal music, and no one can truly listen to a polka and not feel good doing it, which is why it has also found its way into the Church as well. 

In the 1960's, Vatican II opened a lot of things up in the Catholic Church, many good and many bad.  One thing it allowed for was more of a contextualization of the Mass, and in true folk fashion, this even included the incorporation of polka music!  One of the earliest pioneers of this was Fr. Frank Perkovich (born 1928), from Eveleth in Minnesota's Iron Range, a very ethnically diverse and rich region not unlike where I grew up in Tucker County, WV (also home to the "Polka King," Frankie Yankovic!).  Fr. Perkovich, along with another priest, Fr. George Belasco in Ohio, appropriated polka tunes to the Mass by giving them theologically-compatible lyrics.  This started in the 1960's, and today it is fairly common to have a Polka Mass celebrated at festivals and ethnic events.  Some Protestants also picked up the idea, and there is as a result a Lutheran minister called "The Polka Padre" that has appropriated the Polka Mass for a Protestant setting.  It is also interesting to note here that even one of the most beloved Pentecostal gospel tunes - "Just Over In The Glory Land" - has the exact same tune as a traditional polka called "The Lappland Polka!"  How did that happen??  That is something I wanted to research, and perhaps when I do I will share that with you all as well, because it is interesting how a bunch of Appalachian Pentecostals ended up singing a polka tune with Gospel lyrics at their revivals and campmeetings!  

Fr. Frank Perkovich, the man who brought polka to church!

Well, it looks like you all got an education in polka music tonight, something I didn't plan on.  However, I must end class for tonight and will definitely have more to share later.  God bless.

Those Fiddlin' Kids!

Talent, as is well documented, starts young.  It is born in the person God gifts with it, but it also takes a lot of work to refine and develop it into something that really stands out.  Talented kids are particularly something that deserves appreciation, as a truly talented young person will make an impact on his or her audience.  The problem today is that a lot of fluff and idiocy (Justin Bieber comes to mind here - sorry to the Bierberites out there, but the truth hurts!) gets passed off as talent, and indeed a lot of marketing and image-making goes into creating many of the no-talent hacks that are out there, but it still isn't true talent.  However, thankfully, there are young people out there who really shine, and although they will never make millions like Bieber or some of those fly-by-nights do, their talent is creating a legacy.  In recent years I have encountered several of these remarkable young people, and they are the ones I want to talk about today.

The young talented (and real) artist does happen, and in the past we have been blessed with kids such as the cherubic-sounding Charlotte Church (her recording of the "Ave Maria" she cut at the early age of 12 still sends shivers up my spine!), the multi-talented Blaise Garza (he tackled - and did so masterfully - the once-obscure contrabass saxophone in his teens), and kindergarten crooner Blake Ewing, who was discovered on Ed McMahon's old Star Search  program back in the 1990's (he also did a tremendous job playing rich kid Waldo in the movie version of The Little Rascals).  All of them are now adults, and they still have careers although not as well-known as they once were, and all of them are still blessed with tremendous talent.  The ones I want to discuss now are not quite as famous as these are, but they are still talent that deserves to be appreciated.  So, let us begin!

The first two I want to talk about are the Piatrowski Sisters, Andrea and Erika, who both are accomplished fiddlers with their family's band, Pan Franek and the Polka Towners.  These girls have been performing from an early age, and the first I remembered hearing them was when they made a guest appearance on Jimmy Sturr's program on RFD back in 2007.   These girls are not only talented fiddlers, but are also gifted in showmanship, even giving Sturr's fiddler, Frank Urbanovich, a run for his money on the show.  The girls are now adults themselves, but as far as I can reckon they still tour with the family band, which is based out of Michigan.   If you get the chance to listen to them, please do - you will not be disappointed!

Andrea and Erika Piatrowski, and their equally talented sister Christina, at a polka festival performing.

 

 

The second family of talented young ladies are a little different in style, as they play vintage Western Swing and do it well. I heard the Quebe Sisters and their band on "Larry's Country Diner" a couple of months back, and almost immediately bought their CD's because they sounded phenomenal - their rendition of "Across the Alley From the Alamo" is one of the best I have heard actually!  The Quebes - Grace, Sophia, and Hulda - are native Texans all still in their teens, and they like many young talents developed at a young age, due in large part to a supportive family.  These gals actually have a website (www.quebesistersband.com) and they have two very excellent CD's available that I would urge anyone who loves big bands, Western Swing, or more traditional country music to give a fair listen to.  I am also encouraging Larry Black to have them back sometime on his show too!

 

 

The Quebes - Grace, Sophia, and Hulda

 

 

The third group is from a different genre altogether - Southern Gospel.  Back in January, we attended the winter crusade that the Lake Gibson Church of the Nazarene conducts here in Lakeland every year, and in addition to the evangelist (an anointed and powerful Methodist bishop from Alabama, Dr. Kip Laxson), the pastor, Rev. Charles Kirby, brings in a well-known gospel group.  In past years it has been the Pfeifers (probably my all-time favorite Gospel artists, hands-down!), but understandably due to scheduling, Pastor Kirby brought in a group I had never heard before from Iowa called the Browns.   The consist of two talented young brothers, Andrew and Adam, and their beautiful sister Michaela.  Their mom, a sweet lady named Shelly, rounds out the group while their dad handles their technical support.   One thing struck me about this family - Shelly lets her kids shine, and although she sings with the group, her kids are the stars of the show and I believe she wants it that way because she is a proud mama (and a good one, as she has raised three talented and well-mannered young people).  However, lest you get the impression that these kids are all about singing songs, it turns out they are also talented musicians - all three play violin, and Michaela has recorded an excellent solo album recently.  When they were at the crusade, they played a beautiful rendition of the song "Let There Be Peace on Earth," and they also played some classic hymns of the Church that many of us Catholics and Anglicans are familiar with too.  They likewise have a website with several recordings available (I understand they were also awarded Top 10 Mixed Gospel Group of the Year for two consecutive years, which in itself is quite an honor), and the URL for that is www.brownsmusic.com.  The site says they currently have 10 recordings available, and there is indeed something for everyone.

 

 

The Browns - Adam, Andrew, Michaela and mom Shelly

 

I final young talent I want to mention is a young French Canadian guitarist I came across back in 2009 who is a Gypsy jazz virtuoso.  At the time, he was 13 (he is now almost 18 if I calculated right) and when I heard him, it was as if the spirit of Django Reinhardt had resurrected itself - this kid has one of the most phenomenal Gypsy guitar techniques I have ever had the blessing of hearing, and although he hasn't gotten it on disc yet, I actually have corresponded with him and encouraged him to do so.  Quinn Bachand is definitely someone that classic jazz afficianados should pay attention to, as we may be hearing more of him in the future. At present, he is doing some tours with his older sister Christine, and has also forayed into Celtic folk music as well.  Although I would prefer personally he stick with Gypsy jazz, Quinn is going to do great at whatever genre he settles on. 

 

Young guitar prodigy and Gypsy jazz master Quinn Bachand

 

There are many more of these young shining stars I could mention, but these are some I have encountered personally that really impacted me with their wonderful talents.  Many of their recordings are in my own library, and I count it an honor to have them.  So, for us old-timers, be assured that the extent of today's talent doesn't stop (or even start!) with punks like Justin Bieber - the kids I just talked about are the real stars, and I will support their careers any day.  Any rate, so long until next visit, and happy listening.  For you parents, encourage your kids to explore music and maybe learning an instrument for themselves if they develop an interest; who knows - someone like me may be writing about them someday too!  







Ponderings

There has been much to ponder the past several weeks, but to start the conversation, we have a home computer again!!  It was long in coming, very much needed, and I can get much more accomplished regarding class projects and writing these articles.  It is so good to be back!

Let's see - this is an informal conversation, so let's talk some about what is on my mind.  We had our second trip to Pinecraft, the Amish community in Sarasota, this past Saturday and we also got to eat at what was once called Troyer's,  a very good Amish-style buffet on Bahia Vista, just up the road a couple of blocks from the more famous Yoder's.  Be watching my food blog for a review on that later.  One thing I picked up while down there is a very large but easy-to-read Amish newspaper called The Budget, which I believe is published out of Ohio if memory serves me correctly.  The bulk of the paper is made up of brief submissions by writers in various communities across the US who tell of events happening in their neighborhoods, and it is fairly innocuous stuff that you would not see on CNN but probably should be, as we need more news like that.  News items are varied - Mose Hostetler got a glass eye, and you can hardly notice it's glass because it matches his other one, and other such news items.   I love reading stuff like that, as it makes me a little homesick, and thanks be to God for the small towns that still dot the "highways and byways" of our great nation.  If you live in Florida (or are just visiting), make a point to visit Pinecraft, eat some good food at Yoder's or Troyer's (or whatever they call it - good food regardless!), and be sure to pick up one of those papers, which are readily available for less than a couple of bucks. 

The Der Dutchman Amish Restaurant and Buffet in Sarasota, formerly Troyer's

It is also getting to be springtime, although my dear friends and family haven't gotten the bulletin yet being another winter storm - this one they are calling Virgil - slammed most everything north of Florida pretty hard.  The last one, Ukko (Al Roker on the Weather Channel couldn't get that quite right and was calling it "Urkel"; that's OK Al - we forgive you buddy, as you are still fun to watch!) hasn't even melted yet!  However, the temperature is slowly rising in Florida, which has led me to start contemplating gardening this year.  In my big planter in front of the house, where I grew tomatoes last year, I plan on planting live herbs - at least two parsley plants, rosemary, basil (of course!), oregano, thyme, sage, and maybe some catnip for the furkids.   Nothing enhances the flavor of food like live herbs (not to steal thunder from my food blog!) and I love growing them.  Let's just pray my green thumb doesn't turn black this year!  I also want to plant a few Roma tomatoes, as I plan on doing a whole batch of my homemade sauce at some point this summer between scanning 403b files at work and conjugating Greek verbs in grad school, and Romas make the best sauce, as any Italian worth his pesto will tell you.   Anyway, pictures of all that to follow on my food blog too, as I plan on doing a growing technique thing with the herbs on there.

Let's now talk some music.  I haven't been getting a whole lot of new stuff the previous year, although that has changed recently.  I am really gaining quite an affinity, for instance, for "Dutch Hop" polkas, and love the sound - something about that hammered dulcimer makes those type of polkas sound so pretty.  "Dutch Hop" originated with Volga Germans who settled primarily in Colorado after immigrating here from Russia early last century, and they have a unique culture that is distinctive from other German communities you find around the US.  Volga Germans are practically as much Russian in many ways as they are German, and their cuisine and music reflect that quite clearly.  The hammered dulcimer is not unique to "Dutch Hop" though, as it also is featured on many klezmer recordings too as well as in Ukrainian folk bands - it is called a tsimbl in those cultures, but is still the same trapezoidal-shape instrument you'd find in bands like the Polka Nuts or John Fritzler's.  I managed to get a good CD of vintage Dutch Hop music by two of its early pioneers, Adolf Lesser and Paul Weingardt, and the older stuff is a little more livelier than that played by contemporary groups such as the Polka Nuts, but it is still good music.  Although Lesser has been making recordings since the 1920's, many of the ones on the disc are from the 1950's.  Another much-anticipated addition to the music collection I finally found is the vintage commercial recordings of Johnny Green's orchestra, including his 1935 arrangement of one of my favorite tunes of his "Mile a Minute."  The first I had heard this was on a Vitaphone short from 1935 I have on DVD, and I fell in love with it. Of course, Green's was a phenomenal orchestra, and the maestro himself a tremendous talent (he directed the MGM orchestra for years, and his is the work you will hear on the original West Side Story soundtrack), as well as a prolific composer ("Body and Soul," now a classic jazz standard, was his composition). 
the phenomenonal Johnny Green!

A sheet music cover of Adolph Lesser, Dutch Hop pioneer.

 

 

I am also expecting from my friends at Polkamart.com a collection of early polka pioneer Lawrence Duchow, who led a polka dance band in Wisconsin from the 1920's.  However, Polkamart, although they have good music selections, takes forever to ship your orders!  I am already 3 weeks into waiting on it, and am getting anxious.  Anyway, polka as you know is an integral part of my vintage dance band collection, and to be honest you cannot really appreciate big bands without appreciating polka and its development, as it has contributed so much.   My CD collection, which will now be at 1120 once the missing Duchows find their way here, is a historical documentary.   It chronicles the development and growth of a phenomenal genre of music - big bands - that is an integral part of Americana as well.  People who hear "big band" often associate it with cheesy swing tunes with over-exaggerated brass (to me, those "big band sound" attempts really stink!), and they really don't know what this musical genre is all about.  It is my hope one day to find some way to appropriate my collection to life experience and use it to educate others, as a glorious heritage is contained within those wax-stacks many people today don't even know about.  And, that is a good lead-up to my next subject of conversation.

One thing being deprived of a computer has compelled me to do the past few months is to write more journal entries, and as I began to get back into doing that regularly, I began to ponder my own past - why I like the music I like, why I cherish the CNC's (central narrative convictions, as Dr. Archer, one of my professors, devotes a lot of writing about) I have, and most intriguing, I have pondered the question as to if there was a purpose to why God allowed me to grow up as I did and if so, what it has done to define my personal faith, etc.  I of course have written a ton of this in my memoirs, and it also comes out in my family tree research too, but this is the one aspect I feel I need to explore more.  As I began to do so, I realized that in my person I am practically the ultimate paradox - I have the blood of Charlemagne and Constantine in my veins, yet I grew up in such abject poverty that it is almost incomprehensible to many my age (we Gen-Xer's in general are not big on first-hand knowledge of wood stoves and  outhouses, yet I grew up with both - go figure!) .  Also, here I am, a person of the '80's generation, yet while my classmates in high school were listening to Madonna and Michael Jackson, I was listening to Guy Lombardo and Freddy Martin!  Also, I grew up in small-town Appalachia - both the town of Parsons, WV, where I grew up as well as the towns of Kirby, WV (where I spent a lot of my formative years) and Terra Alta, WV (where I went to high school) are all tiny hamlets, insignificant on the world stage, yet here I am!  I grew up in those remote mountain hamlets, yet today I am working on a graduate degree, speak three languages, and have a professional resume that many would envy.  Ironically, one of my professors asked me before class tonight why I didn't have a doctorate yet - a flattering but good question!  Again, all of this is the paradox (or series of paradoxes) that constitutes my life.  My answer to why all this came together is simple - only God!  I mean, here I am - I grew up in a community where practically everyone was on some sort of government assistance, yet today I am friends with archbishops, leaders of polka bands, Southern Gospel artists, scholars and academics, and other such people - yet another paradox!  On, and on, and on I could go with all this.  All I can say ultimately is thanks be to God for his goodness and mercy, simple as that.  

I suppose I have rambled enough for one night, so I will wrap it up for now.  I want you all to stay tuned though, because speaking of music, I have a good article I want to share in a couple of weeks entitled "Those Fiddlin' Kids!" about some phenomenal young talent I have gotten the privelege of hearing.  As I promote these talented young people, I would encourage you to check out their recordings and other work and support their art, because they are truly phenomenal, but you will read about that at another time.  God bless until next time, and glad you could visit with me again.

 

A Fried Hard-Drive Has Necessitated My Absence, But I Am Back!

Back in early December, our home computer system crashed and burned hard, in effect crippling our communications. That is why I have been noticeably absent here lately.  However, I hope to get back into the swing of things, as I have a lot of good stuff to talk about and it will take some time to do it, so we'll start now!

I have been back doing contract work this past couple of months in addition to grad school, and life has gotten extremely busy with both work and class.  But, it isn't anything we can't handle.   Work now is quite interesting, as I am doing an extended project for a retirement benefits company here in Lakeland as a consultant to get them converted to totally paperless.  It is a project I am sure will take a long time, as it requires scanning about 17 4-drawer filing cabinets of alphabetically arranged files into pdf documentation, and then indexing them into a database.  My staffing agent told me initially it would be a two-month project, but somehow I think it is going to take longer.  If you have ever scanned a large volume of documents, you know exactly what I am talking about - removing tons of staples, and also being on the lookout for those annoying little Post-It notes some people like to attach to pages that will easily gum up a scanner if missed.   However, that all goes with the job.  The company, and indeed the job itself, is actually great:  a very laid-back atmosphere, and it is conveniently located in downtown Lakeland just across the street from scenic Munn Park.  Also, with Barb working one block away, it proves convenient for us both too.   It is also nice at lunch when I can explore the local eateries - we have the Bosporus Turkish Grill (good kabobs there, if only they didn't slap a nasty salad on your plate when you tell them you really don't want it!), a decent Chinese place, and Palace Pizza, as well as the Black and Brew Coffee Shoppe (they make a decent cup of coffee and have good blueberry scones I enjoy an hour before heading up to work of a morning).  But besides eateries, there is also a little General Store downtown (next door to the Turkish place, ironically!) that I have been frequenting a lot, and it is fun to visit.  The owner Teresa and her "marketing manager," a terrier mix named Sparky, run the place and she has gotten to know me pretty well - she maintains a good rapport with her regulars.  Of course, when I venture over there at around 12:30 in the afternoon, Sparky is in her "planning session" (for us laypeople, she is taking a nap!) so I don't get to see her too often.  If ever you are in downtown Lakeland though, you must stop by and browse around.  One thing she features at her store are some very good books by local authors, such as Donald Moore, who is from over here in Auburndale and known as "The Redneck Gourmet," and also one of my favorite reads from there is Laverne Stevens' Bread and Butter Days, which chronicles the life story of Clem Flickinger, a childhood friend of the more famous Walt Disney (some of you may have heard that name!), and the life he had growing up in the small village of Marceline, MO.  I want to talk more at another time about that book, as it gave me some childhood memories of my own.

Above are some pictures of the inside of the store, the "Marketing Manager" Sparky, and the front entrance.  A place like this makes a West Virginia boy like me feel right at home, as this is just like the local stores back home where I grew up, that were owned by people like Si Faris and his wife Freda in Rowlesburg, WV; Carl "Sonny" Hedrick and his wife Lorraine in my hometown of Hendricks, WV; Nellie and Lincoln Cox in Kirby, WV, where I spent most of my childhood; and C.J. Smith in Augusta, WV.   All of these high-priced "Quickie-Marts" today just don't have the same level of personal service and nostalgia that these old stores had, so I am thankful to God that in downtown Lakeland there is a little place like this.   Hopefully, they will stay open and successful for many years to come.  I mean, seriously, where else can you get Frostie root beer, Cheerwine cola, and Nehi grape soda in the glass bottle (which actually tastes better to me!)?  Now, if I can only convince Miss Teresa to get some Frozen Run Birch Beer in stock!

The book Bread and Butter Days by LaVerne Stevens, which you can get at the General Store - good read!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little inspiration with you today here, and in time I plan on being back again with some more tidbits of my West Virginia-originating wisdom for you to ponder.  Until then, this is hoping that everyone had a good 2013 so far, even you folks getting slammed like crazy in the northeast this winter with storms - it is unbelievable that they are actually naming winter storms this year, and I have to watch Al Roker on the Weather Channel every morning now just to see what they are going to name the next one (plus, I lost track of the letters; aren't they in the R's now?).  So, my northern friends and family, be safe in all that mess, and we'll be thinking of you in this 70-degree weather we have here right now.  God bless until next time.