Jimmy Sturr and his orchestra to perform at Symphony Hall By Craig Harris Special to Reminder Publications Highly polished arrangements and flawless execution have enabled Springfield, Massachusetts-born clarinet/alto saxophone player, singer and bandleader, Jimmy Sturr and his thirteen-piece orchestra to modernize the polka, the 2/4-time dance music that originated, with Polish influence, in Bohemia, in the mid-nineteenth century. The more than 106 albums, recorded by Sturr and his band since the 1960s, include an album of polka-ized disco music, "Polka Disco", in 1979 and a pair of rock and roll-meets-polka recordings, "Rock'n Polka'" and "Shake, Rattle And Polka!" in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Sturr and the band's efforts have not gone unnoticed. Among the top ten Grammy Award recipients of all-time, they've won fifteen awards in the twenty years since the Grammys initiated a "Best Polka Recording" category. "I've tried to Americanize the polka," said Sturr from the Florida, New York, home where he grew up and continues to reside. "It's not that I don't like the traditional music but a lot of people don't understand ethnic languages. I'll do one song in Polish, maybe, two, during a show. But, everything else is Americanized." Despite criticism for straying from Polka traditions, Sturr has consistently striven to expand on the musical style. "The traditionalists haven't always been happy," he admitted. "But, the majority don't realize what I've been trying to do. We're not a rock band or a country band. I just want to get a bigger, broader, audience for our style of music." Sturr, who performs, along with legendary country music saxophonist Boots Randolph, at Springfield's Symphony Hall on Dec. 10, has been exploring the possibilities of Polka music most of his life. Born of Irish heritage, he nevertheless became fascinated with the music as a youngster. Polka provided the soundtrack for many of Sturr's childhood memories. "High school dances had polka bands," he recalled, "and our local radio station had a polka show every day. Of course, you had music at Polish weddings. I grew up listening to that music and that's how I fell in love with it." Starting his first band at the age of eleven, Sturr left the group temporarily to study, under a full music scholarship, at Valley Forge Military Academy and the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. Assuming leadership of the band, following his graduation, he initially remained tied to traditional music. For the first nine years that they were together, the band performed mostly at Polish weddings and Polish-American dance halls. "I enjoyed [the traditional style]," Sturr said, " but I wanted to do something a bit broader. To do that, I felt that I had to Americanize my music somewhat." Sturr and his band have continued to reach out to a wider audience. Their albums have included guests ranging from the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Mel Tillis and Brenda Lee to Bela Fleck, Delbert McClinton, Duane Eddy and Arlo Guthrie and they've collaborated with Cajun accordionist Jo-El Sonnier and Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez. Their latest album, "Polka In Paradise," features a guest appearance by Bobby Vinton. "We've done whatever we can to broaden our audience," he said. "That's how we thought it would happen." "I've had the same guys for many years," he said. "Our drummer (Dennis Coyman) and lead trumpet player (Eric Parks) have been with me for thirty-five years, tenor saxophonist (Johnny Karas) for twenty-eight. It's why we're in the position that we're in. There's nothing we can't play." Sturr's albums and as many as 150 concerts a year are only one mode of bringing his message to his audience. The host of a syndicated radio show, "Polka Session", that began in October 1964 and is currently aired in twenty-four markets, he recently agreed to continue hosting a series of half-hour television shows for the RFD-TV network. "It's very big, especially in the Midwest," he said. " You have to have Direct-TV or a satellite dish. Still, it gets into thirty million homes. It does very well for us. It's helped us out a lot." Sturr has diversified his business as well. He owns a booking agency, National Polka Artists, Inc., a record label, Starr Records, and a travel agency that operates Polka cruises of the Caribbean.