Lenny Gomulka at age 5 took an immediate interest in polka music. He especially liked the drums which he self-taught himself in spare time. His formal training began at age 11 when inspired by his mother to take trumpet instruction. Before organizing his own polka band, Lenny spent his years as a sideman. He performed with and/or recorded with every top reigning polka band in Chicago during the past 24 years with…
The words Polka Music and Johnny Haas are synonymous. It is rare that one is said without the other, for this man of worldwide fame was polka. But let’s find out more about this legend. Johnny Haas said he was half-Polish and half-Pennsylvania Dutch, and he used his background to its best advantage. Having been bitten by the “Music Bug” at an early age. Haas began playing the drums at age 9.…
It was a long hard haul for Al Grebnick, Nebraska Polka King, (1978), who grew up in the “dirty thirties,” on a farm. With only an eighth grade education behind him, because the family could neither afford to board him out or buy him a car so that he could gain a high school education, Grebnick turned to music. His first instrument, a Stradivarius given to him by an uncle when he…
Joe was born on January 29, 1941, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. During his early childhood, his family moved to Blackstone, MA, where he was educated and graduated from the local High School. He subsequently received his Bachelor’s Degree in History and Government from Boston College and a Masters Degree in History from Framingham State College. Joe began his entertainment career at the age of 16 on Radio Station WNRI in Woonsocket, RI,…