Polka | Old Time Blues

“[Texas Czech music] was not like it sounded in Europe; this had much more of the Southwest swing to it. A year later I heard the Joe Patek Orchestra in person at a dancehall in north Houston. There were many of these bands in the area, but Patek’s was the best of them.”

— Chris Strachwitz

Out of the myriad of ethnic groups that comprise the melting pot of modern-day Texas, the Czechs have had a particularly significant impact on the culture of the Lone Star State. Arriving first in the early days of Anglo settlement in Texas and settling largely in the southeastern quadrant of the state, there now number more individuals of Czech heritage in Texas than in any other state in the union. And with them, they brought bountiful treasures which are appreciated by Texans of every race, color, and creed, including kolaches, klobasneks, bock beer, polka music, the SPJST, and Czech Stop. In their honor, October has been declared Czech Heritage Month by the Texas State Legislature, and it would seem remiss to allow the month to pass by without paying tribute to their rich musical contributions to Texas culture

Of the many Bohemian bands in central and south Texas—Rhine Winkler’s, Rudy Kurtz’s, Frank and Adolph Migl’s, the Baca family’s, and others—perhaps none exceeded the renown of Joe Patek and his family band. Hailing from Shiner, Texas—home of the eponymous Shiner Bock beer—at the heart of Texas’ Czech community, Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra has been hailed as the greatest renowned of the numerous such bands in the region, though they claimed to have only played for their own amusement. The Patek family band was founded in 1895 (or 1920) by Czech immigrant John Patek, Sr., who had been a musician in the old country. One of six Patek brothers, Joseph Patek was born in Shiner on September 14, 1907, and took over leadership of his father’s band from his older brother Jim in the 1930s. Once the reins were in his hands, Patek’s Bohemian Orchestra recorded seven sides for Decca during their field trip to Dallas in February of 1937, of which only one record was released, and which sold quite poorly. Patek attributed that commercial failure to the band being rushed by the recording director. They would not record again until the rise of small, regional record companies in the years following World War II, beginning with a series of discs on the tiny San Antonio label Martin. Subsequently, they recorded somewhat prolifically for the FBC (Fort Bend County) and Humming Bird labels out of Rosenberg and Waco, respectively. Transitioning to the 45 RPM and LP era, Patek’s band cut records for San Antonio’s illustrious Tanner ‘n’ Texas (or TNT) and Bellaire Records from the Texas town of the same name. They continued to record into the 1970s, with albums remaining in print on CD to the present day. In addition to recording, Patek’s orchestra also had a weekly radio program on KCTI in Gonzalez, Texas, in the mid-1940s, and toured central and south Texas dance halls and picnics. Their repertoire consisting of polkas, waltzes, and marches, many with Czech vocals, they became as well known as the beer that made Shiner famous. Under Joe’s leadership, the Patek orchestra incorporated jazz and Latin influences in a uniquely Texan blend unheard in traditional Bohemian music. In addition to music, Patek operated a grocery store, meat market, and slaughterhouse, still in business today in Shiner. The Patek orchestra dissolved following a 1982 New Year’s Eve dance at the Shiner American Legion. Five years later, Joe Patek died in Victoria, Texas, on October 24, 1987.

Martin M103 was recorded around 1947 by the S.W. Martin Distributing Company. The actual date of recording is untraceable and may be lost to time. It was their first record for Martin. The label misspells Joe Patek’s last name as “Petek”.

On the A-side, Patek’s band plays what is surely their most widely and perhaps fondly remembered piece, the “Shiner Song” (“Když jsme opustili Shiner”), an “all-time favorite song” of the Texas Polka Music Association, derived from the older “Praha Polka” and rededicated to the popular beer produced by the Spoetzl Brewery of their hometown of Shiner, Texas.

Shiner Song, recorded c. 1947 by Joe Petek’s Orchestra.

On the reverse, they play a waltz dedicated to our great nation titled “Beautiful America” (“Krásná Amerika”), a number which they recorded again for TNT in the decade that followed.

Beautiful America, recorded c. 1947 by Joe Petek’s Orchestra

Of the crazy quilt of ethnicities comprising the cultural mosaic of Texas, the contributions of the Czechs are not to be diminished. From Shiner Bock to kolaches and plenty more, the bounties brought to the people of Texas by way of Czechoslovakia are nigh innumerable. Among those, polka has made a particular, if sometimes overlooked, impression on Texan culture, with a unique flavor of the dance music originating in central Texas which can to this day not only be heard in its pure form, but also in its influences on the state’s official musical genre, western swing.

One of the leading purveyors of polka music for much of the twentieth century, Bačova Česka Kapela (“Bača’s Czech Band” in English) of Fayetteville, Texas, was originally founded in 1892 by Frantisek “Frank” J. Bača, a first generation Texan, born March 8, 1860, whose father emigrated from Bohemia. In addition to his own thirteen children, the band included local musicians from around the central Texas Czech country. Bača was proficient on several instruments, and his band quickly gained popularity at local functions and SPJST dances. They quickly established themselves as one of Texas’ most popular polka orchestras, alongside the likes of Joe Patek’s Orchestra of Shiner. A national tour was planned, but was aborted following the Frank Bača’s death on May 3, 1907. Subsequently, leadership of the the Kapela was assumed by his son John R. Bača. Under his directorship, the Bača band made their first record in Chicago in 1924, for Okeh and their ethnically oriented subsidiary Odeon, under the name “Baster’s Ceska Kapela”. They made their radio debut in 1926, playing on Houston’s KPRC. When the Okeh company visited San Antonio five years later, they furthered their recorded legacy with a session which produced eight sides in June of 1929. They made another sixteen in two record dates on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of August, 1935, when Okeh’s successor Vocalion made a field trip to Texas. Further recordings were made for local labels like Waco’s Humming Bird Records after the Second World War. John Bača died on April 16, 1953, and the Bača baton was passed on to his nephew Gil, whose father Ray had led an offshoot of the original band since 1932. A distinctive pianist, Gil Bača led the family band to great acclaim until his death on October 15, 2008, bringing the multi-generational history of Bačova Česka Kapela to its close. Many of their recordings were reissued on the Arhoolie compilation Texas-Czech Bohemian-Moravian Bands.

Vocalion 15943 was recorded on August 27, 1935, in San Antonio, Texas. It was also released—evidently concurrently—on Columbia 263-F, which remained in “print” for a considerable length of time. On all issues, it seems to have been Bačova Česka Kapela’s best-selling record.

Firstly the Kapela plays a boisterous polka titled “Já Jsem Mladá Vdova”, or in English, “Young Widow”, in an arrangement by Adolf Snec.