April 17, 1971: The Goral Boys

 

April 17, 1971

Make Room for Another Polka Giant

        Short, round-faced Frank Gnojek leans a muscular Penn Central freight yard arm on the bottom half of the Dutch door in his Indian Church Road basement and grins.

        For three years it was quiet. His son John, who put in all the acoustic tile and built that little control room, empty now, had rehearsed bands down here for 10 years. That was until things broke up in 1967 and, well, you could hear the TV better, but it wasn’t the same.

        Now John’s back, weaving his trumpet across those two-four and three-four rhythms since December with this new group. And there’s poster for the up on the wall and this band is really something.

* * *

THE GORAL BOYS. For the people who get their music at the Strand Ballroom on Clinton Street or at the Matthew Glab Post, The Goral Boys are a veritable supergroup.

        Not only do they come from five of Buffalo’s top recording Polish bands (they won’t say which ones, things are still sensitive), but they also have something none of those bands can boast. A violinist. His name is Harry Burdick and he’s 59 years old.

* * *

“THIS IS the first time anybody’s put a band together like this,” John explains. “It sort of like Crosby, Stills and Nash. People recognize you, you know, and they’ll say, ‘Didn’t you play with this other band before?’”

        “We figured we’d have a band which didn’t have an organized leader,” says other trumpeter Ken Machelski. Look at the sheet for Goral Enterprises Inc. and you find seven subsidiaries, each band member a president.

        The seven presidents also had to put up a membership fee, the idea being that the group will be stronger through this common commitment.

* * *

THEIR first appearance Jan. 17 in the Strand Ballroom drew two notices in the next edition of bi-weekly Polka World (“Happy Music for Happy People”) out of Columbus, Neb.

        One story said: “Never before has the city or its surrounding areas had a band which features a violin and concentrates on playing ‘the old-country style’ of polkas.”

        The other reported: “While the fabulous Goral Boys were playing the ‘Fiddler’s Polka’ on the dance floor, the entrance was filled with squad cars, fire rescue units and an ambulance.” No, not a riot. They were for promoter Wally Czaska’s wife, who moments later gave birth to a girl.

* * *

FROM THIS auspicious start, the band has moved to bookings under such polka giants as Li’l Wally (May 9, Strand Ballroom) and Marion Lush (May 22, Glab Post). There’s the possibility of TV appearances, too.

        They’re also at the Polish Village on Broadway Sunday night, at SS. Peter and Paul Church in Depew next Saturday, at the Glab Post by themselves April 30 and May 28 and at Polish weddings and parties too numerous to mention.

        Not an easy schedule for seven musicians with regular jobs, two of them at night. Like Harry tonight. That’s why he left his violin home. He didn’t figure they’d be playing.

        He also didn’t figure he’d be more than an hour late for work. But the band cuts into a polka and Harry, waiting for a ride, learns from his watch he’s an hour and a half overdue and there’s nothing to do but play tambourine or invisible violin and take a spot next to singer Joe Grenda.

* * *

UNDER normal circumstances, there are four lead instruments – three horns and the violin. The horns play harmonies with each other in a double-time tapestry over Joe’s sonorous accordion and a two-four polka beat  which sounds almost rockabilly on Hank Krzykowski’s drums and Bill Barnas’ five-string bass.

        They add a saxophone or one or two concertinas for variety in a repertoire of polkas, waltzes, obereks (fast waltzes), Rheinlanders and “English numbers” – recent pop songs like “Knock Three Times” and Herb Alpert’s “A Taste of Honey.”

* * *

THEY’LL sing an occasional English verse in a polka, depending on the crowd, but the strong point with people who feel strongly about the old country is the Polish. And if the pronunciation isn’t good, you’re in trouble.

        The Goral Boys say theirs is among the best, with Joe’s parents being from the old country and Joe speaking nothing but Polish at home.

        His mellow tenor forms vowels and consonants that sound like a reversed recording to the ignorant ear. The words seem to march, not to Hank Krzykowski, but to some other drummer in some other phrasing that’s all twists and turns.

* * *

SMALL wonder that engineer Bill Levy left all the production up to the group two weeks ago when they went into Buffalo’s Act-One Sound Studios. In fact, the studio is arranging to have The Goral Boys do all its Polish music production.

        Essentially it will work the way The Goral Boys’ record will work – recording and mixing at Act-One, production, promotion and distribution by Goral Enterprises.

        For that first record, they’ll choose from “Fiddler’s Polka” (which Harry says is a polka version of the square dance “Flop Eared Mule”), “Hupaj Supaj” “My Dearest Mary Oberek” and an untitled fourth song.

* * *

THEY’LL send it to polka deejays listed in the polka newspapers, then record an album this summer for Ray Records, a Nebraska company. Then they’re hoping for the big bookings. Philadelphia, Detroit, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Lawrence Welk.

        “We’d like to get as big as Li’l Wally,” Ken Machelski observes. “He’s a millionaire. He’s even got hotels in Florida.” 

The box/sidebar 

All from Polish Families 

Pertinent and impertinent information about The Goral Boys:

        John Gnojek, 25, trumpet, Emerson Vocational High School, carpenter, married, one child.

        Ken Machelski, 21, trumpet, concertina and vocals, Hutchinson Tech, Army Reserves, architectural draftsman for Erie County, married.

        Ted Darlak, 22, sax and clarinet, Burgard Vocational, Army Reserves, printer, married.

        Joe Grenda, 18, accordion and vocals, Seneca Vocational, works in a Buffalo hamburger shop, single.

        Harry Burdick, 59, Masten Park High, class of ’27, attended Fredonia Teachers College until the movie theater he worked in burned, and UB nights, rate clerk for trucking company.

        Bill Barnas, 20, bass and concertina, Canisius High, sophomore at UB nights, assistant manager of Lackawanna hamburger shop, single.

        Hank Krzykowski, 22, drums, Kensington High, Army Vietnam veteran, fabricator, single.

        “We just adopted this style,” says Ken, whose father has played Polish music 35 years. “We all come from Polish families, we’ve got to Polish weddings and seen everybody having a good time. That’s what the music is about.”

* * *

THE BAND grew around John, Ken, Ted and Hank and got moving in December after Hank got out of the Army. Goral means “mountaineer” and The Goral Boys chose it to suggest the old country to their audiences.

        They play the newer, slower, easy-dancing Chicago style, more easily adapted to small bands than the Eastern style, which is fast-paced, big-band polka. Harry, who worked with Ken’s sister-in-law, played Eastern at first, but slowed down his style and calmed the group’s doubts about it.

        “He really knows his stuff,” Joe says, “and he’s as enthused about this band as us younger guys.”

* * * * *

PHOTO CAPTION: THE GORAL BOYS in Buffalo’s Polish Village, from left, front, John Gnojek, Bill Barnas and Harry Burdick; rear, Ken Machelski, Hank Krzykowski, Joe Grenda and Ted Darlak.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: In 1995, Ken Machelski became a founding member of Jerry Darlak and the Buffalo Touch, serving as lead vocalist, trumpeter and emcee. The Touch was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Polka Album in 2003, 2004 and 2009. Since Darlak died in 2010, he’s been the leader. (Saxophonist Ted Darlak does not seem to be a direct relative of Jerry, who came here from Chicago in the ‘80s.)

The band Ken left to join The Goral Boys was the Buffalo Hi-Notes. And between the end of the Gorals in the mid 1970s and the start of the Touch, he was leader of the popular nightclub band New York Transfer, which evolved out of the Gorals. In his job with Erie County, he was promoted from draftsman to architect.

At least three of the other Gorals wound up with other major local polka bands – John Gnojek went on to Big Steve and the Bellares. Singer and accordion player Joe Grenda resurfaced with the Dynatones. Bassist Bill Barnas also became a Dynatone and has played with Stephanie’s Polka Band.