Jack Tady aims to keep the polkas poppin'

Jack Tady of Cheswick has found his happy place.

“I like to make people happy and polka music does that,” Tady says.

Tady, 78, will perform, celebrate and serve as guest of honor April 9 at a multi-band concert open to the public, marking 65 years of performing polka and variety music.

“This will be a reunion for me,” says Tady, who will perform with his band, Jack Tady & The Tady Bears.

Tady was 9 when his teacher at school suggested he take up an instrument.

“They gave me a trumpet,” Tady says. “I didn't like it.”

A few weeks of trumpet practice did not go unnoticed by Tady's father.

“My dad asked me what did I really want to play. I said drums,” Tady recalls.

The trumpet went, and the drums appeared, and Tady hasn't stopped playing since. He also plays keyboard, bass and button box accordion.

“I was driven from a young age and always knew I wanted to perform and play music,” Tady says. “I love it. I never get tired of it. Music soothes people and my philosophy is to make people happy.”

Tady, of Croatian descent, grew up in Russellton, with parents who exposed him to the culture and music of Slovenian-Croatian Polka music.

He attended West Deer schools and earned a bachelor of science degree in music education and English and a master's equivalency in music from Duquesne and Penn State universities.

Tady retired from Deer Lakes School District after a 31-year career serving as music teacher and band director.

Tady and his wife of 35 years, Peggy or “Cupcake” as he calls her, raised four daughters. Peggy is Irish, and thought polka music was only for dancing at weddings.

She is “behind the scenes,” she says, except when she co-hosts with Jack on his weekly polka radio show, Jack Tady's Polka Place, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Saturdays on WEDO 810 AM.

“I didn't know it is a lifestyle,” she says. “My kids were put to sleep with polka music. Our daughter would get tired and say ‘put on the polka.' ”

Tady still gives drum lessons from his home. Their home's basement serves as a museum/studio — with Tady's instruments, photos and memorabilia lining the walls and shelves.

Photos showing their age are displayed on numerous poster boards — all commemorating various achievement and accolades awarded to Tady.

A popular niche music in America, polka in the U.S. refers to a music and dance style that originated in Eastern Europe in the early 1800s and traveled with immigrants as they settled in America.

Tady plays Cleveland-style polka. “It's smoother, not as jumpy,” he says.

Tady likes to say he “keeps the polkas poppin' in Pittsburgh.” With his band, The Tady Bears, he has traveled the globe performing. He was 14 when he formed his original band, the Russ-Slovenes. Performances all over the world dot his musical resume, including gigs on cruises to the Mediterranean, Bermuda, Hawaii and the Caribbean.

One memorable trip was a Caribbean cruise in which Tady's band had the distinction of performing the first Slovenian polka Mass on the high seas.

With no thoughts of slowing down, Tady keeps his calendar booked.

“I don't think he can sit through a half hour television program,” his wife says. “He gets a polka thought and he is gone.”

Joyce Hanz is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.