By Carl Kozlowski
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As a young boy in the late 30s, Jagiello took the streetcar with his family from their home in Wicker Park to Caldwell Woods, at Devon and Milwaukee, where groups representing different villages in Poland would gather for picnics every weekend, each bringing its own polka band. Jagiello would watch and sing along, and soon a band snagged him to sing at weddings. When he was a little older, he sneaked out at night and went to the taverns along Division to listen to the polka bands. “I’d leave the window open a few inches,” he says. “When I got back, if the window was closed, I knew I was in trouble.” He sang and played the concertina at bars like the Midnight Inn and the Gold Star, but his big break came courtesy of the Lucky Stop, where he was offered the chance to lead his own band at the age of 15. Jagiello’s parents never had any idea that their youngest child was a local celebrity. “They thought I was a crook because I always had all this money,” he says.
Jagiello’s fame grew to the point where he started his own nationally distributed label, Jay Jay Records, and built a record-pressing plant on the south side. He went on to record 17 gold and 4 platinum albums before moving to Florida in the 60s. He continues to oversee a small empire there. “I have two recording studios cracking, and a Li’l Wally Hall of Fame, where we give plenty of tours,” he says. “I’ve played on The Lawrence Welk Show in front of 30 million people and at the Vatican for the pope, so I’ve managed to draw a few fans.”
