Published Thursday, February 27, 2003
By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer
Musicians have merged polka with country, rock and other musical forms, but those attempts have not made a lasting impact on polka.
Tony Trontel doesn't believe polka could ever be successfully pulled from its cultural roots.
"Everybody's saying the Mexican touch is going to take over the polka business," the Sharon native said. "I think it's doubtful. As far as I'm concerned, the Slovenian polkas are it for me. The Polish polkas were something you did as a novelty number."
Polka came to Trontel, the Penn-Ohio Polka Pals' 2003 Man of the Year, through his Slovenian heritage, and both are equally ingrained in him.
Trontel grew up on Stambaugh Avenue, a stone's throw from the Slovenian Home, of which his grandfather was a founding member. Food and music were as much a part of his heritage as language, and all were passed down to him.
Picking up the piano accordion at age 9, he started playing with the Polka Rhythm Boys at age 14. The band did a weekly radio show on WPIC, and any weddings and picnics it could book.
In high school, he had a group called the Starliters.
He was hired in the engineering department of Westinghouse Electric Corp. -- Sharon Transformer Division shortly after finishing high school, but kept playing polkas, filling in with bands throughout the '50s and '60s, except for two years in the Army.
In 1964, Trontel and his cousin, Jake Zagger of Hermitage, formed the Trontel-Zagger Orchestra. They toured widely on weekends, and recorded "The Polka Express" in 1967.
Trontel left the band in 1972, quit playing out for four years, then joined the Norm Kobal Orchestra, led by the former saxophonist of the Trontel-Zagger Orchestra.
The Kobal band dissolved in 1984, shortly after Westinghouse closed and Trontel left the Army Reserves.
Since then, Trontel has limited his appearances to benefits, jam sessions and POPP dances.
"I wish to hell I'd taken it seriously," he said of music. "I would have cut five records like Jake (Zagger), too."
Trontel could never make the switch from weekend polka player to full-time musician.
"The difference is that check is in the mail on the 30th of the month," said Trontel.
But polka has remained strong in his life, and he considers it more important to him now than it was when he was a kid.
He listens to every polka show his radio can pick up, breaks out the accordion when he hears a melody that catches his ear, and has devoted many hours to POPP.
The club is charged with preserving and promoting polka in the Shenango and Mahoning valleys. It holds dances and the annual banquet, awards scholarships to young people who want to become members of the Duquesne Tamburitzans and sets up events such as this summer's polka day at a Cafaro Field, Niles, Ohio.
A founding member of the 25-year-old group, Trontel, 69, of Youngstown, considers POPP "a sacred club."
Made up of union musicians, many of whom are otherwise competing for gigs, the club is held together by the shared interests of its members, he said.
"It's like a fraternal brotherhood," said Trontel, who co-wrote the club's by-laws.
Trontel will receive the Man of the Year honor March 30 at DiVieste's Banquet, Warren, Ohio. Information: (330) 393-0592.
You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at
jpinchot@sharonherald.com