Bal u starego Joska (Bal na Gnojnej) is a waltz by Russian composer Fanny Gordon with lyrics by Julian Krzewiński and Leopold Brodziński. One of the most popular and well known Polish songs belonging to the genre of piosenka apaszowska (apache songs of the Polish underworld). Considered now to be a Warsaw underworld song, it was written around 1934 for one of Warsaw literary cabaret theaters, frequented by Polish intelligentsia.
The ballad (waltz) describes somewhat violent party at the cafe on Gnojna Street in Warsaw, which at the beginning of the century was renamed Rynkowa (Market Street) 7. The street was in the heart of the Warsaw vibrant Jewish district. The restaurant at the Market 7 was run until 1932 by the "Gruby Josek" whose real name was Józef Ładowski. He died on October 7, 1932 probably of heart attack. The cafe was popular among traders and porters from the nearby Hala Mirowska (food market) as well as by occasional writers and politicians who would visit it late at night after Warsaw's exclusive restaurants would close. The text was written for one of Warsaw theaters or cabaret revues. Both the composer Fanny Gordon and the authors of the text Julian Krzewiński and Leopold Brodziński were creators of the first Polish operetta Yacht of love (English title New York Baby), played at that time in Warsaw at the "8.30pm Theatre". In January 1933, the theater "Morskie Oko" presented revue Dodatek Nadzwyczajny (Special Edition) in which the main theme was wandering through the alleys and taverns of Warsaw - one of the stages of this journey was a cafe (tavern) U Joska na Gnojnej.
The song belongs to a Polish song genre of piosenki apaszowskie which has its origin in the street songs of French Apaches underworld (the name comes from Native American Apache tribes). World apasz describes in Polish a member of the Warsaw underworld. It is written in stylized Warsaw slang similar to Parisian argot best represented by the French singer of Los Apaches life Aristide Bruant.
Recordings
The first recording with the voice of Tadeusz Faliszewski was published around 1934 by the leading Polish record company of that time - Syrena Record . It remains to be one of the most popular Polish underground ballads often sung in the specific dialect of Warsaw's Praga district. Ron Davis recorded jazz versions of Bal u starego Joska on his 2010 album My Mother's Father's Song.