Eddie Blazonczyk Jr.
Hall of Fame – 2025
Eddie Blazonczyk Jr. was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and is known for playing concertina, fiddle, and bass guitar. He was inspired to play music by family, primarily his father, Polka Music Hall of Famer, Eddie Blazonczyk Sr.
Eddie began learning to how to play the chemnitzer concertina at age 12 with lessons from Frank Berendt Sr. and later from Dave Bruzdzinski, who are both very well-known and respected concertina musicians, and members of the World Concertina Congress Hall of Fame.
In his early teens, Ed performed with several Chicago area bands including The Chi-Town Express and Joe Walega’s Happy Hearts. He became a full-time member of John Jaworski’s Keynotes, Chicago’s Milwaukee Avenue, and Fred Bulinski’s Brass Works, before joining his father’s Grammy Award-winning band, Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones, in 1989. He remained with the Versatones for the next 23 years. By the time the band retired in 2011, Ed had logged more than 3,000 performances in ten different countries. Since then, he has continued playing concertina as a hobby by occasionally filling in with various bands throughout the Midwest.
Ed’s composition, “Squeezebox,” was recognized by the International Polka Association in 2005 as the Favorite Song of the Year, and he was named Favorite Concertina Player by the United Polka Association in 1994. He has been the featured concertina musician on numerous recordings that include 15 Grammy nominations, as well as several television and live radio broadcasts with many of the bands previously mentioned.
Besides his many professional achievements, Ed has also made efforts to promote and preserve the chemnitzer concertina and Polish style polka music. While performing with the Versatones, Ed was asked by Walter Kadlubowski Jr. (World Concertina Congress Hall of Fame) to play and promote his new Eagle Concertina due to the high volume of exposure Ed offered through the band’s extensive performance schedule.
The Blazonczyk family continues to host the annual Polka Fireworks music festival, hiring and promoting bands that typically feature the chemnitzer concertina. Ed has hosted and remains the organizer of the annual Steve Litwin Concertina Jam at the Polka Fireworks festival. He is an active member of the Cicero Concertina Circle in Illinois, as well as the World Concertina Congress. He has volunteered his time to provide one-on-one concertina instruction to many musicians seeking assistance with this instrument and is proud to serve as an ambassador for the chemnitzer concertina.