The New York Times political reporter looked around the table of mostly graduate students sheepishly, almost confused. A svelte, sophisticated man, Richard Berke was not prepared for the Wisconsin-style gluttony that he witnessed at the Essen Haus a few Thursdays back. The big steaks and the big beers were off-putting, to be sure, but Berke's true uneasiness began when the oom-pah oom-pahs began to bellow and the polka festivities began.
\This is great,"" Berke said, with the kind of smile that a nun might display upon entering a biker bar.
The graduate students in attendance poo-pooed the polka music as well. True, polka music has not had a real youth-oriented focus for at least 30 years, but is it completely passe? Has polka been relegated to the Dr. Demento vaults of novelty music? Some 50 years ago, a youthful and boisterous Milwaukee crowd of 8,000 screamed at the top of their lungs to vocally elect Frankie Yankovic the ""King of the Polka."" Perhaps that spirit is dead. Maybe these days, kids don't come home to beg their parents for an advance on their allowance to buy that accordion they've had their eyes on.
Chicago native Leon Kozicki bristles at such suggestions. A 60-year veteran of the music business, Kozicki is a founding member of the International Polka Association and also serves as the chairman of the organization's Hall of Fame. The organization serves as a polka preservation society, keeping the flame lit for the music that was invented in the 19th century, in what is now the Czech Republic. Polka's popularity is all a matter of perspective, he says, suggesting that the music he has dedicated his life to is currently at the low end of a wave, ready to crest again.
""Well, it's in a state of transition. It could be and it has been and it will continue to be [popular],"" he said. ""You've got the older people who are the longevity, as time goes by, they get older. And then you've got the younger ones, and you're constantly introducing this form of polka music to the younger generations.""
People of all ages, from teenagers to 90-year-olds, can't help but to get up and dance when the bouncy beat begins, according to Milwaukee music store owner Bob Kames Jr. His father, Bob Kames Sr., is credited as the man who brought the widely known and popular ""Chicken Dance"" over from Germany in 1982. Bob Jr., who used to play with his father on stage, insists the polka's popularity is universal.
""It's the most amazing thing, you see kids, they'll get up and polka,"" Kames said. ""Is it their favorite thing to do? Probably not. But it's fun.""
Plenty of polka bands and styles persist to this day, providing the requisite ""Just Becauses"" and ""Blue Skirt Waltzes"" for the drinking and dancing pleasures of kids and confused correspondents alike. Kozicki, who also played clarinet and saxophone in his own quintet, Lee's Dynatones, cites performers like Eddie Blazonczyk and his Versitones from Chicago and 12-time Grammy Award-winner Jimmy Sturr, based out of Florida, as a couple of the most popular polka acts in the country. Sturr will be the headlining act at this weekend's ""Polkapalooza 2002"" in Atlantic City.
As if that were not enough, there are as many as five definitive styles of polka, including the Czech or ""oom-pah"" style, the Polish or ""Honky"" style, the Eastern style, the Bavarian style and the ever-popular Slovenian or ""Cleveland-style"" of polka that the great Yankovic was partial to. Each style has different arrangements, different audiences and, of course, different instrumentations.
""You'll never see a concertina [a squeezebox-type accordion] in the Slovenian style,"" Kozicki said.
Of course not. But why does polka get such a bad rap? Kozicki chalks it up to unfamiliarity and general bias against the polka people and their polka ways.
""The Beer Barrel Polka is a good song, but it doesn't have too much to do with polka today,"" Kozicki said. ""The old stereotype of the tuba, oom-pah, oom-pah, and the lederhosen and so on, well, it still prevails in certain areas.""
Victor Greene, a UW-Milwaukee professor of history, has taken a more scholarly approach to the subject in his book, ""A Passion for Polka: Old Time Ethnic Music in America."" Call him a polka academic, if you will. He says the anti-polka bias derives from associations of economic class, because the music has always had a less sophisticated bent.
""It has always suffered from being associated with the lower middle class, a lack of artistry, a lack of virtuosity,"" he said. ""It's really just a stereotype.""
Polka can be a unifier as well, Greene said. His book focuses largely on the immensely popular Yankovic, who was able to unify a multitude of different polkas and ethnic groups. Yankovic, a Slovenian from Cleveland, played Honky and Bohemian styles as well, and at his peak of popularity would play 300 shows a year.
""[Yankovic] developed a kind of eclectic style,"" Greene said. ""He himself was Slovenian, but he would play the different styles, put them together and make them popular nationally.""
And popular they were. According to his obituary in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'Yankovic died in 1998'he appeared on Johnny Carson and Phil Donahue's television shows, as well as performing with such luminaries as Lawrence Welk, Milton Berle and Bob Hope.
In defense of the music he loves, Kozicki points out that polka's popularity has, if anything, increased over the last 35 years.
""Years ago, you only heard it at picnics and probably veteran halls and church organizations,"" he says. ""Now you hear polka music in Branson [Mo.] from time to time, you hear it on cruises, you hear it in country clubs, you hear it in lots of resorts in the country, you hear it in hotels.""
Greene added that polka has even stepped into the age of rock 'n' roll, at least in the technological sense.
""It has certainly continued, it has for example adapted some of the electronics,"" Greene said.
So perhaps polka is the music for all seasons. Maybe American society is lying in wait for another polka revolution like the one Frankie Yankovic jumpstarted in the 1940s after he returned from the Great War. Is there any occasion that is polka-phobic? Has Kozicki ever been to a funeral where polka was played?
""In the Chicago area? Yes,"" he said with all seriousness. ""[The music] was a little subdued; they're not going to put up their star tunes at a wake, where they can't really open up.""
That stands to reason. By the way, is there such thing as a sad polka song?
""Yeah, I guess there are a few,"" Kozicki said.
