El Don Tostado

Bio:

Don Tosti the creator of "Pachuco Boogie" was a gifted musician whose life experiences shaped him with influences of both Mexican and American cultures. Born Edmundo Martinez Tostado in 1923 in El Paso, Texas, he grew up in the infamous Segundo Barrio where the ganas spoke the CALO jargon. Tosti was raised by his mother Carolina and his grandparents, when they enrolled him at age 7 in music studies to divert him from negative lifestyles in his neighborhood. However he couldn't escape the language and learned how to speak PACHUCO talk as a young boy. Tosti proved to be a child prodigy who played violin in the El Paso Symphony at age 10. When he was 15 he moved with his family to Los Angeles. In L.A. he began concentrating on the saxophone, following his hero Ernie Caceres, a young Chicano from San Antonio, TX. who played alto sax in the Glenn Miller Orchestea.In 1948 when Tosti was playing with Les Brown & his Band of Renown at a dance at the Pauley Ballroom at UC Berkeley, he checked the Oakland phone listing and sure enough found his biological father, which he knew very little of. they were soon united and Tosti met a whole new family of brothers and sisters. Tosti returned to L.A. with new found ambitions and wrote "Vine Por Ti," a BOLERO that was recorded for Discos Taxco by Ruben Reyes and became a hit. Soon after came "Pachuco Boogie" which set in motion a whole new Chicano perspective on American pop music. The group's follow-ups in 1949 were equally as hip. "Wine-O Boogie" and "El Tirili" once again had a jump and a GUARACHA side. He was East L.A.'s best pianist and had returned to his Lincoln Heights home in 1948 after stints with the orchestra of Miguelito Valdez back East. In a class of his own, he become a major L.A. jazz figure in the 1950's and 60's. ..

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Member Since:

March 05, 2008

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