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HomeArts/LeisureHail the beauty of October!

Hail the beauty of October!

As radio moved from the era of live commentators and hand-selected music to automated pre-fab playlists, Music Of Your Life master Frank Knight retired from broadcast media. Sort of. He’s never been busier. And that soft, lyrical voice remains the same. Perennially recognizable by a legion of fans.

On an inspired whim, moved by the beauty of a single piece of writing, Mr. Knight and his daughter, Virginia, recently completed a slide show and his reading of Hail October.

We offer no fanfare; just an invitation to pause, watch and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of New England in Autumn and the gentle flow of words from a master commentator.

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He continues to attend Heritage Big Band dances and occasionally emcee summer and holiday concerts and dances, enjoying every moment on and off stage with 16 orchestra playing ballroom, swing, and those wonderful tangos, rhumbas and waltzes choreographed by practiced dancers over a huge floor. They’ve taped a few concerts. And there’s always a Polka or two for him in recognition of the many years he spent hosting the TV show Polka! Mr. Knight, a Boston native, traveled extensively in Europe with legendary Polka musician, the late Gene Wisniewski, introducing hundreds of travelers on their tours to the unexpected beauty and colorful heritage of the Poland that is his heritage.

More recently, Mr. Knight has turned 17 years of accumulated travel video into a multi-part series of half-hour shows, A Knight in Poland, now broadcast on many access stations in the northeast. The show offers glimpses of folk music and dance, vistas of cities like Krakow, tours of the home of composer Frederick Chopin, somber and solemn walks through Auschwitz and the death camps with their sidewalks made from gravestones, or simple reverence at the Shrine of the Black Madonna of Cz?stochowa– all revisited on film.

As with travel, he’s spent hours, weeks, months reviewing, editing and splicing together the music and sound from the best of his Polka! show. The show was so popular and so extensively aired that even today, Mr. Knight remains recognized for his affiliation with both Polka and the Music Of Your Life. Music, food and fine friends fuel the exuberance of his life and his work.

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