“Tony Krew” and his accordion provide the soundtrack Broadway Market

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Listen:

His smiling face and happy accordion are one of the great welcoming sights of the Easter Season at the Broadway Market.

Steve Cichon and Tony Krupski at the Broadway Market during the 2018 Easter season.

And with his Easter season appearances in newspaper and social media photos and all over television newscasts, Tony Krupski has really become the face of the Broadway Market.

“Many people tell me that, yes,” said Krupski last week at the market.

Krupski has been playing accordion for 60 years, famously for his family’s band, The Krew Brothers Orchestra and for Full Circle. Playing at the market is really source of pride.

“I don’t take it for granted. I’ve been playing all my life. But the Broadway Market– it rejuvenates the entire year. I’m happy to be a part of it,” says Krupski.

So now as his playing creates new memories and a connection to the past at the Broadway Market, he’s reminded of his own memories of the place.

Tony Krupski entertains holiday shoppers at the Broadway Market with his smile and accordion.(Buffalo Stories/Steve Cichon photo)

“I remember coming here to the Broadway Market as a youngster,” says Krupski. “My parents would bring me here and we’d shop in the market. In the back, the hucksters selling fruits, vegetables and chickens. It just brings back a lot of memories, and here I am, years later, enjoying and playing here.”

Tony honored me with a command performance of my favorite Krew Brothers’ song, The Buffalo Polka.

Buffalo in the 90s: Searching for the fragments of Buffalo’s polka culture

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

For decades, Buffalo’s East Side was the cradle of the city’s Polonia culture. As people and institutions of Polish descent left the East Side, Buffalo’s unique blend of Polish and American traditions became spread out and not as easy to identify.

Twenty-five years ago, The News was asking whether Buffalo’s polka music culture was dead.