Larry Chesky

Chesky would take up the accordion first at the age of six and organized his first Polka band by the age of 13, debuting at the Cavalier Restaurant in Chicopee as "The Polka Dots". After graduating from Holyoke High School, he attended the Hartt School of Music.[3][4] In the mid-1950s Chesky signed with the Musico Recording Company, forming the Larry Chesky Orchestra, with one of his best-known early hits being "Our Gang Oberek", created in 1956.[3][5] Among Chesky's early influences was Ray Henry and his orchestra, an earlier pioneer of the Big Band Eastern style from Connecticut, who Chesky and his band would later perform with at Mountain Park.[6][7][8] Chesky and his orchestra would remain a fixture at the amusement park when not touring or recording, starting regular performances there before 1955; he would perform there weekly with a number of other musicians for more than 30 years, until the park's closure in 1987.[4][9]

Chesky would spend much of his early career touring the Eastern Polka circuit from New York to Chicago, and was inducted into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame in 1985, having recorded over 100 albums.[10] He was a proponent of the "Big Band" or "Eastern" style of Polka, which features more band members (greater than ten), and a focus on horn and reed instruments, than the typical Polka band. Over the years he and his band would backup a number of headliners, including singers Barbara Mandrell, Bobby Vinton, and James Darren.[4]

In 1974 Chesky would launch Modern Mail International, a catalog business selling Polish heritage novelties. By the 1990s he had largely retired from his record business, continuing to tour with Polka festivals across the country selling memorabilia.[11][12] He remained active in Freemasons, particularly as a Shriner.[1] He and his orchestra continued to perform with some regularity into the 2000s.[13] One of his last public appearances was as a guest of a "polkathon" on UMass Amherst's WMUA in October 2010. Chesky died of heart failure at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, on January 25, 2011 at the age of 77.[2][3]

Jimmy Sturr, the 18 time Grammy Award Winner for Best Polka Album, said of him: "He was one of my idols. I grew up on him...I modeled my band after his Eastern style."[2] Lenny Gomulka, the twelve time Polka Grammy Nominee, said that Larry Chesky was a "pioneer who changed and enhanced the image of polka to the Big Band sound."[2] Describing the origins of Tex-Mex/ska polka band Brave Combo, cofounder Carl Finch cited Chesky's sound as influential in the Grammy Award Winning band's early search for a style they felt still represented the music of "the common people", in an increasingly corporate cultural landscape.[14]

External video
Larry Chesky Inducted into International Polka Hall of Fame, with Staasi Heropoulos, WWLP TV 22 News (1985)
"Larry Chesky Interview Excerpts 'Prime Time'", with George Dorunda (1989)

• Larry Chesky - Topic, YouTube
• Musico Records discography
• Modern Mail International Catalog, circa 1977