By Bill Schlotter

	CEMA Director Sal Güereña holds one of Don Tosti’s many records. The youthful Tosti is in the background photographs.

He started out in the 1930s as Edmundo Martinez Tostado, a musical prodigy from a tough neighborhood in El Paso, Texas, with enormous talent but few resources. But even at an early age, the youngster possessed an amazing capacity for perseverance and hard work.

By the time he passed away last August at the age of 81, after a career as a composer, musician, bandleader and television personality, Don Tosti was widely accepted as “the Godfather of Latin Rhythm and Blues.”

Tosti donated his personal papers and other memorabilia from his career to the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), housed in UCSB’s Davidson Library. He also gave the archive a generous endowment.

“Don Tosti was a progenitor of modern Chicano music,” said CEMA Director Sal Güereña. “His energetic ‘Pachuco Boogie’ opened a new chapter in American music. He, along with Lalo Guerrero, pioneered in creating the subgenre of post-war, Mexican American jump blues, and made history by inaugurating a new era in Mexican American music.”

After spending most of his childhood in Texas, Tosti moved with his family to Los Angeles at the age of 15. He learned to play the saxophone and then the bass, and soon had organized his own swing band.

By the time he was out of high school, Tosti was so accomplished on bass that he was in demand with the best bands and orchestras of his time, working with such legendary bandleaders as Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, Bobby Sherwood, Les Brown, and Charlie Barnett.

Then came the formation of Don Tosti and the Pachuco Boogie Boys and their big hit, “Pachuco Boogie.” Not only did the recording sell over a million copies in 1948, it also caused a bit of a conservative backlash. Some older Mexican-Americans were offended by Pachuco street slang, called caló. One host on a Los Angeles Spanish-language station began each broadcast by smashing a copy of “Pachuco Boogie” on the air.

But the song, a fusion of blues, scat, and Latino rhythms, was a hit and Don Tosti was on his way to becoming a star. He quickly recorded other songs in the boogie style, among them “Chicano Boogie,” then settled in to a long career of writing and recording his own music and backing up others in studio sessions. He also hosted a television show, “Momentos Alegres,” on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles.

He later moved to Palm Springs, where he continued to write music, entertain at clubs, and run a music agency. In 1999, the city recognized his career in music by giving him a star on the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars.

“Don Tosti’s lifelong credo has been ‘live, love, learn, and leave a legacy’,” said Güereña. “He has done just that. “

CEMA’s Web site, <http://cemaweb.library.ucsb.edu/news.html>, includes more information on Tosti and links that allow visitors to hears several of his songs, including “Pachuco Boogie.”