Matthew Wasielewski Jr. of Evans City started listening to polka music as a child growing up in his parents' house in Pittsburgh's North Side.

He started a polka band, sang in another band, hosted radio and Internet polka music shows and was inducted into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame in 1998.

Wasielewski hosted his two-hour Internet show on the Polka Jammer Network from 2006 until he died on Nov. 17. He was 82.

“He did it all. He did everything one could do in the polka field,” said Todd Zaganiacz, Polka Jammer Network president.

Music, especially Polish music, seemed to be always playing at home when Wasielewski was growing up as the oldest of 11 children to parents of Polish descent, said his sister, Elaine Buyna of Pittsburgh.

“When families from both sides visited, many of them sang the songs in Polish and everyone joined in with laughter and dancing, and making instruments out of anything they had in the house,” Buyna said.

They grew up during the Great Depression and the music helped everybody forget about their worries, she said.

Wasielewski loved the sound of the accordion and when he was a teenager he bought one after saving enough money from his job setting up pins in a bowling alley.

He practiced hard and taught himself to play, but it was seeing polka bands playing at the West View Danceland that inspired him.

In 1957, when he was 22, Wasielewski started his band The Polka Jets with his two brothers, Ed and Stanley, who they called Stas.

During the band's run, which lasted until the late 1990s, it played three or four jobs a week and was in such demand that some shows were booked one or two years in advance. The band appeared on TV several times.

“Me, Matt and our brother Stanley were in the band,” said Wasielewski's brother Ed Waleski of Polk. “Our first job was at the Polish White Eagles in Lawrenceville. We were on WQED twice in the 1960s. We traveled in one van, which he had all painted up. We practiced at least once a week. We were quite active. We were in demand.”

He said the Polka Jets played with nationally known polka bands and performed throughout Pennsylvania as well as some venues in Ohio, New York and other states.

Some of nationally known artists were the Marion Lush Band of Chicago, Walter “Lil Wally” Jagiello also of Chicago and the mother and daughter band Wanda and Stephanie of Buffalo. N.Y.

“Playing with nationally known bands was the biggest thing. We appeared with a lot of musicians in the Polish music field,” Waleski said.

A full story appeared in the Butler Eagle.