In Any Tempo,
Band is a Hit

Part 1 of 2
Date: -----------------
By: Gerald Kloss
Of the: Journal Staff
If the Polish National Alliance covention crowd at Convention Hall Saturday night was any indication. Milwaukee's new international Folk Baand was the greatest thing to come along since kielbasa. Broiled in beer, yet.

When this 16 piece outfit played the "Prsi Prsi (Rain Rain?) Polka" halfway through the half hour set, a couple dozehn couples leaped from their chairs and stomped and swirled in dance.

And when Hizzoner, Henry

Maier, got up on the stage and sang "Yak Shepko," a traditional Polish farewell tune, in Polish, well, the beige beams in the cavernous West Hall started fracturing with the stand up applause.

It's not known whether Mayor Maier will be a permanent star vocalist with the band, but he must have been encouraged by the response of the crowd, numbering perhaps 500 from over the nation.

And the conductor Dave Kennedy must also have been pleased with the way his orchestra -

(Turn to Band, page 14, col. 1..)

In Any Tempo, Band is a Hit
Part 2 - Continued
Ethnic Band Puts Audiece on Feet
Date: -----------------
By: Gerald Kloss
Of the: Journal Staff

including four violins - set those rafters reverberating and the audience applauding.

This was the second outing for the group, which the mayor has backed as a personification of this city's varied ethnic population. The band is not quite all that ethnically represented - no one-eight Eskimo, for example---but it certainly ranged in age.

Violinist Ray Brown, for decades concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and its predecessors, was the eldest, at 75. Trumpeter Darryl Kennedy (Daves son) was the youngest 17. There were three women players and one black.

So far they really have only one big number, an 18 minute medely of nine tunes, under the their belts, plus others selected for particular occasions, such as the Polish anthem and Bobby Vinton's hit, "Our melody of Love."

They have about four or five public dates set for the rest of the year -- conventions like this one, plus a Mitchell St. appearance and possibly, the municipal Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

It's what they call a "show band" in the trade -- there's a certain amount of choreography involved. When the brass leaps out in "McNamara's Band" and the strings sound up in "Take Me Back to Sorrento," the players stand up, as in the sections of the big dance bands of the 1930's.

You don't find that in symphony orchestras, and the eye appeal had it's effect on the convention audience, sipping free beer and sitting at tables.

So, who needs Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when you can hear the mayor lead a sing-along of "Du, Du, Liegst Mir im Herzen," backed by brass, strings and woodwinds? Match that, Richard Daley and Abe Beame!