Eastern Sound Orchestra
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Ferry Boat Polka
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The New Hampshire-based Eastern Sound Orchestra is one of New England's most popular and enduring Polish polka ensembles. For 42 years they have been entertaining audiences from Montreal to Miami with their fiddle-driven, highly danceable East Coast style.
Polka originated from lively couple dances in Eastern Europe and became popular on the continent in the 1830s and 1840s. As Eastern European immigrants brought the music with them to the American Midwest in the late 1800s, varied ethnic and regional styles developed; though named for the country and culture of origin, the musical styles often differed markedly from their respective old world traditions. Polish American polka split into two regional styles: East Coast and Chicago. East Coast style developed in the 1940s, a decade earlier than Chicago, and is faster than its counterpart and typically boasts a larger reed and horn section.
All of the members of the group grew up with polka, and three of them sing in Polish. Drummer and founding member, John Sobczak, recounts that his parents met at a Polish dance in Salem, Massachusetts, and that they took him to dances as a child. He and other band members listened to musicians such as Al Sojka, Walt Solak, and Dick Pillar, popular regional bandleaders who helped create the contemporary East Coast polka style. Since its founding in 1975, the Eastern Sound Orchestra has played hundreds of concerts and dances throughout the Eastern U.S. Like most contemporary polka bands, they play music from a variety of genres, but the emphasis is on older, traditional Polish songs and tunes. Fiddle is also prominent in their sound-a holdover from the old country, it was once common in the music of the mountainous regions of Poland, and was popular with many descendants of Polish immigrants in New England.
Joining Sobczak are Tony Malionek (accordion, trumpet, piano), Richard Lapadula (trumpet), Stan Kanarkiewicz (accordion), Mike Petrishen (clarinet, saxophone, fiddle), and Peter Sylvester (bass, fiddle).
Polka originated from lively couple dances in Eastern Europe and became popular on the continent in the 1830s and 1840s. As Eastern European immigrants brought the music with them to the American Midwest in the late 1800s, varied ethnic and regional styles developed; though named for the country and culture of origin, the musical styles often differed markedly from their respective old world traditions. Polish American polka split into two regional styles: East Coast and Chicago. East Coast style developed in the 1940s, a decade earlier than Chicago, and is faster than its counterpart and typically boasts a larger reed and horn section.
All of the members of the group grew up with polka, and three of them sing in Polish. Drummer and founding member, John Sobczak, recounts that his parents met at a Polish dance in Salem, Massachusetts, and that they took him to dances as a child. He and other band members listened to musicians such as Al Sojka, Walt Solak, and Dick Pillar, popular regional bandleaders who helped create the contemporary East Coast polka style. Since its founding in 1975, the Eastern Sound Orchestra has played hundreds of concerts and dances throughout the Eastern U.S. Like most contemporary polka bands, they play music from a variety of genres, but the emphasis is on older, traditional Polish songs and tunes. Fiddle is also prominent in their sound-a holdover from the old country, it was once common in the music of the mountainous regions of Poland, and was popular with many descendants of Polish immigrants in New England.
Joining Sobczak are Tony Malionek (accordion, trumpet, piano), Richard Lapadula (trumpet), Stan Kanarkiewicz (accordion), Mike Petrishen (clarinet, saxophone, fiddle), and Peter Sylvester (bass, fiddle).
