Music & Dance Music-Dance News July-Aug '19 | Page 14

Music & Dance News
July/August 2019
Page 14
Mike Wendolek continued
Blake Klaustermeier and Friends Band includes August Makovsky, Nancy
Buckentine, Mike Wendolek, and Blake Klaustermeier.
linked up with Bruce
Mielke, better known by
his stage name, Bruce
Bradley.
Together, we played
supper clubs and other
Southwest Dance Party
and other styles of mu-
sic, different from the
forms of music I had
been playing.
Sometimes, we would
incorporate a third mem-
ber in the group, form-
ing a trio. Keith Reese, a
trumpet player from La-
fayette, MN, played with
us from time to time.
Jolly Brothers
The
later
1960s
brought the invasion of
Polish polka music to
our home area.
Initially, a band called
the Jolly Brothers (broth-
ers Joe, Gene, and Fred
Tomaszewski) started
drawing huge crowds in
the local ballrooms,
Their music style start-
ed bringing the younger
generation of people to
the dance venues, revi-
talizing the ballroom
dance business.
In 1967, my brother,
Bob, and I, along with
Jim Wendolek (another
cousin) who was recent-
ly discharged from the
Army, started playing
some of this style of mu-
sic along with the New
Ulm-style of music nor-
mally performed.
My friends and I at-
tended many of the Jolly
Brothers’ dances when-
ever possible.
One night, at the origi-
nal Paradise Ballroom
in Waconia, MN, the
manager of the ballroom
asked Joe Granda, drum-
mer for the Jolly Broth-
ers at that time, if this
kid (me) could sit in for
a song or two because I
one-night stands as a
duo.
Back then, Bruce
played a portable organ,
rather than an accordion
as most people remem-
ber him today.
We regularly played
The Fireside Inn in
Willmar, MN, where
Bruce played the house
organ; The Velvet Coach
in Hutchinson; various
country clubs; and once
a month at a bar in Bon-
gards, MN called Pat’s
Place.
Pat’s Place, owned by
Pat Meier, was where all
the local baseball teams
hung out, and is where I
first met my future wife,
Susan Feltmann from
Young America, MN.
However, we dated off
and on for another six
years before I finally
settled down.
Playing with Bruce
Bradley helped me ac-
quire a discipline for
playing swing, jazz, pop, Continued on page 15