Antonio de la Rosa (October 31, 1931,

Sarita, Texas Sarita is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the county seat of Kenedy County, Texas, United States. It is the only settlement of note in the county, and as of the 2010 census had a population of 238. Sarita has been ranked the most politic ...

– June 2, 2004) was an influential

tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the ...

musician. He was noted for producing dynamic and harmonic accordion runs on the two-row button accordion.

Biography

De la Rosa's recording session took place in 1949 for Arco Récords of Alice, Texas. De la Rosa introduced several important innovations into conjunto music, including the practice of slowing

polka Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ...

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

s down to 110–115 beats per minute, as well as the use of amplified

bajo sexto Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses. ...

and bass.Manuel H. Peña ''Música Tejana: The Cultural Economy of Artistic Transformation'' 1999 - 0890968888 "Among these was Tony de la Rosa, from Sarita, Texas, outside Corpus Christi, whose clean staccato articulation in the performance of the polka became the hallmark of the tejano style (see, for example, "Atotonilco," on the LP The Texas ..." He was hired by

Ideal Records Ideal Records was a record label from Texas specializing in Tejano music. It became the most important record label of the genre in the 1940s and 1950s, recording tejano's most prominent artists. It declined in the early 1960s, but not before le ...

in the early 1950s to be their staff accordionist. He left Ideal in 1955 in order to lead his own band.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De la Rosa, Tony 1931 births 2004 deaths People from Kenedy County, Texas Tejano musicians American accordionists