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Larry Chesky
Larry Chesky, born Lawrence J. Ciszewski, (November 17, 1933 – January 25, 2011, Holyoke, MA) was an American accordion player, Polka band leader, inductee in the International Polka Hall of Fame, and manager of the Rex Records label. Early life and career Chesky would take up the accordion first at the age of six and organized his first Polka band by the age of 13, debuting at the Cavalier Restaurant in Chicopee as "The Polka Dots". After graduating from Holyoke High School, he attended the Hartt School of Music. In the mid-1950s Chesky signed with the Musico Recording Company, forming the Larry Chesky Orchestra, with one of his best-known early hits being "Our Gang Oberek", created in 1956. Among Chesky's early influences was Ray Henry and his orchestra, an earlier pioneer of the Big Band Eastern style from Connecticut, who Chesky and his band would later perform with at Mountain Park. Chesky and his orchestra would remain a fixture at the amusement park when not touring ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts. Holyoke is among the early planned industrial cities in the United States. Built in tandem with the Holyoke Dam to utilize the water power of Hadley Falls, it is one of a handful of cities in New England built on the grid plan. During the late 19th century the city produced an estimated 80% of the writing paper used in the United States and was home to the largest paper mill architectural firm in the country, as well as the largest paper, silk, and alpaca wool mills in the world. Although a considerably smaller number of businesses in Holyoke work in the paper industry today, it is still commonly referred to as "The Paper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WMUA
WMUA (91.1 FM) is a student-run college radio station. Licensed to serve Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, the station is based on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The station's broadcast license is held by the University of Massachusetts. WMUA celebrated its 70th Anniversary of continuous on-air broadcasting during the 2017-2018 school year. The station debuted a second, online only stream called WMUAx in September 2017. WMUA was established in 1948 originally as an AM station. Though it is run by undergraduates, other faculty, staff, assorted members of the community, and graduate students contribute to the station. WMUA is broadcast to the Connecticut River Valley, including western Massachusetts, northern Connecticut, and southern Vermont. The station is federally licensed (authorized by the FCC) and non-commercial, and is under the supervision of the UMass Board of Trustees. WMUA's studio is located in the basement of the Lincoln Campus Cente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People From Holyoke, Massachusetts
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polka Musicians
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ''polka'' referring to the dance is derived from the Czech word ''Polka'' meaning "Polish woman" (feminine form corresponding to ''Polák'', a Pole)."polka, n.". Oxford University Press. (accessed 11 July 2012). Czech cultural historian Čeněk Zíbrt also attributes the term to the Czech word ''půlka'' (half), referring to both the half-tempo and the half-jump step of the dance.Čeněk Zíbrt, "Jak se kdy v Čechách tancovalo: dějiny tance v Čechách, na Moravě, ve Slezsku a na Slovensku z věků nejstarších až do nové doby se zvláštním zřetelem k dějinám tance vůbec", Prague, 189(Google eBook)/ref> The word was widely introduced into the major European languages in the early 1840s. Origin and popularity The polka' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big E
The Big E, formally known as The Eastern States Exposition, and billed as "New England's Great State fair", is the largest agricultural event on the eastern seaboard and the fifth-largest fair in the nation. The Big E is inclusive of all six of the New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Each of the New England states is prominently represented at the fair. Located in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, a short distance from the Memorial Bridge spanning the Connecticut River, The Big E is held every autumn in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Each year, the fair opens on the second Friday after Labor Day and runs for seventeen days. History The first Eastern States Exposition occurred in October 1916 in West Springfield, Massachusetts and was called the Eastern States Agricultural and Industrial Exposition. All six New England states plus Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania participated. It was c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Blazonczyk
Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr. (July 12, 1941 – May 21, 2012) was a Grammy award-winning polka musician and founder of the band The Versatones. He was inducted into the International Polka Hall of Fame in 1970, and was a 1998 National Heritage Fellowship recipient. He has been called "one of the most important figures in the creation of the contemporary Polish-American polka sound." He released more than 60 albums. History Eddie Blazonczyk was born in Chicago, Illinois to Polish immigrant parents of Goral heritage. Before becoming a polka artist, and founding Chicago-based Bel-Aire Records in 1963, Eddie Blazonczyk recorded under the name Eddy Bell for Mercury Records, Versa Records, and Lucky Four Records, all three labels based in Chicago. During this period Blazonczyk toured with Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent and Brenda Lee. The records he made for these labels were rockabilly sides, and novelty songs. "The Great Great Pumpkin", released on Lucky Four #1012, is probably the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corporate Entertainment
Corporate entertainment describes private events held by corporations or businesses for their staff, clients or stakeholders. These events can be for large audiences such as conventions and conferences, or smaller events such as retreats, holiday parties or even private concerts. It is also commonly used to mean corporate hospitality, the process of entertaining guests at corporate events. The companies that provide corporate entertainment are called corporate event planners or corporate booking agencies. Types of corporate entertainment events There are various types of corporate events that make use of entertainment. An opening general session may include entertainment that adds excitement and presents the overall theme of the meeting. Mixers or pre-dinner parties many times use entertainment meant to provide a backdrop for conversation, perhaps an acoustic ensemble or pre-recorded music. Awards or gala events, usually the last event in a series of meetings, can make use of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Finch
Carl Finch (born November 29, 1951, in Texarkana, Texas) is a guitarist, keyboard player, accordionist, vocalist, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the Grammy-winning polka/dance band Brave Combo in 1979 in Denton, Texas. Career highlights He co-produced the albums ''Equal Scary People'' for the singer-songwriter Sara Hickman and ''El Gato Negro'' for the ''conjunto'' musician Santiago Jimenez, Jr. He composed music for and appears as an extra in David Byrne's 1986 movie '' True Stories''. His instrumental "Mall Music" appears on the associated album '' Sounds from True Stories''. He co-wrote the music for the play ''Evelyn and the Polka King''. He produced the opening for ''YuYu Hakusho'' and both the opening and ending themes for the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball'' and ''Case Closed''. He appeared in animated form, along with the rest of Brave Combo, on an episode of ''The Simpsons'' in 2004. He produced and, along with Brave Combo, performed all of the music for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brave Combo
Brave Combo is a polka/rock/worldbeat band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than thirty-five years. Their music, both originals and covers, incorporates a number of dance styles, mostly polka, but also some Latin American and Caribbean styles like norteño, salsa, rumba, cha-cha-cha, choro, samba, two-step, cumbia, charanga, merengue, ska, etc. As part of their perceived artistic mission to expand the musical tastes of their listeners, they have often played and recorded covers of well-known songs in a style radically different from the original versions. Examples include polka versions of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and The Doors' "People are Strange", The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as a cha-cha, and "Sixteen Tons" as a cumbia. While their records may have a sense of humor, they are played straight and not usually considered jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ska Music
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Stranger Cole, Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods and with many skinheads. Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s; the 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s in Britain, which fused Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies with the faster tempos and harder edge of punk rock forming ska-punk; and third wave ska, which involved bands from a wide range of countr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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