Tony De La Rosa born 31 October 1931

Antonio de la Rosa (October 31, 1931– June 2, 2004) was a major innovator in the field of conjunto music. A dynamic accordionist known as " El Conde" ("The Count"), he revolutionised the music of the Texas-Mexico borderlands by introducing electric amplification to a previously acoustic dance form and, in doing so, ushered in a modern era for "Tex-Mex" that saw it gain international popularity.He was noted for producing dynamic and harmonic accordion runs on the two-row button accordion.

He was born, one of 12 children, in the small town of Sarita, Texas, and his earliest memories of music were of his mother playing the harmonica on the family's front porch. Inspired by the accordionist Narciso Martinez, at the age of nine he acquired his first accordion, a $9 one-row model purchased from a Sears catalogue. He remembered: I would sit on the porch making everyone mad, learning to play "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and "Old McDonald Had a Farm". I would play around the rancho for little gatherings, little birthday parties on patios, anywhere there was shade. I made my début at a dance hall in Riviera. Then I played for dances and weddings around south Texas. I spent a lot of time with my accordion on one side of me and the shoeshine box on the other.

De la Rosa was inspired by some of the earlier conjunto pioneers such as Narciso Martínez and Santiago Jiménez, but western swing and honky-tonk music also had an impact on his professional career. In fact De la Rosa was so fond of country music that by the time he was a teenager, he was playing with country bands in small clubs around Kingsville. 

Many of his earliest professional performances were as a member of a country band, but he turned increasingly to the music of the Hispanic community and, buoyed by his success, began to develop a unique sound that highlighted his staccato-like playing. He also introduced a new dance craze to conjunto music, the still popular tacuachito or "possum", with its fluid gliding movements.

                              

In 1949, De La Rosa made his first recording, featuring two polkas, "Sarita" and "Tres Ríos," for the Arco label in Alice, Texas. The next year he joined the Ideal label which he left in 1955 in order to lead his own band. In the mid-Fifties, De La Rosa added drums and the electric bajo sexto (12-string bass) to his band, later augmenting his line-up with a pair of saxophones. Although some purists were horrified, De La Rosa's innovations enabled conjunto outfits to play in larger venues and rapidly caught on. 

Many of his most characteristic numbers date from this era, including " El Circo" ("The Circus") - an adaptation of Red Foley's classic country hit "Alabama Jubilee" - " El Sube y Baja" ("The Ups and Downs"), " La Periodista" ("The Journalist"), " Los Frijoles Bailan" ("The Dancing Beans") and the classic " Atotonilco".

He often worked alongside other major names in the genre including Carmen and Laura Marroquin and the charismatic Isidro Lopez, and featured a string of lead singers including Joe Ramos, Cha Cha Jimenez and his own brother, Adan De La Rosa.

Over the decades that followed he cut scores of sides for regional labels, many of them later resurfacing on a series of Arhoolie conjunto compilations. In the 1990s he recorded a pair of acclaimed albums for Rounder: Así Se Baila en Tejas ("This is the Way They Dance in Texas", 1991) and Es Mi Derecho ("It's My Right", 1995), and in 2001 released a final disc, Mi Ultimo Beso ("My Last Kiss").

Conjunto De La Rosa, which has included two of the leader's brothers, has toured constantly all over the United States. It has recorded more than 75 albums and many single discs. In 1982, De La Rosa was inducted into the Tejano Conjunto Hall of Fame and six years later received a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He remained modest about his achievements: "I don't know anything about music. I don't know one note from the other. I was completely self-taught."

Tony De La Rosa died in Corpus Christi, Texas on 2 June 2004. He was inducted posthumously into the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in San Benito in 2006.

(Edited from The Independent & Handbook Of Texas)