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Going the Distance With Style By Rebekah Martinez La Mafia’s Oscar De La Rosa is much more than a hits man They cut a familiar image — the perpetually youthful leading man with a leather bolero hat playfully obscuring his face; the warm vocal tones and the short bursts of accordion keeping their genre pure; large, dense rhythms, and keyboards lining the unmistakable pop undertones that bolster their particular corner of Tejano music. Certainly one of the more versatile and prolific bands in the genre, Houston’s internationally acclaimed Tejano outfit La Mafia has invented and reinvented themselves and the genre for 25 years, rising from a norteño-driven group with their mid-’80s low-key accordion laden affair, to their mid-’90s keyboard-heavy pop cumbias that have become their signature. Extensive touring over the years throughout the U.S., Mexico, and some parts of South America has bolstered the band’s reputation and gained them fans with varied tastes. They’ve filled venues all over Mexico, won a few awards along the way, and virtually built a miniature empire, including a high-tech recording studio and their own booking agency that handles them as well as other groups. Born and raised in Houston, lead singer Oscar De La Rosa, along with his older brother Leonard Gonzales, cut their musical teeth on acts that performed in their parents’ Houston nightclub. They refined their own act (which later included accordionist/keyboardist Armando Lichtenberger Jr.) with endless performances at weddings, parties, and local dances. It took 10 years of album releases and crossing countries and states, but the payoff was huge, with 1991’s Estas Tocando Fuego selling nearly one million copies, 1993’s Ahora Y Siempre going triple platinum, and pop turns like 1994’s streamlined Vida and 1996’s glossy Un Million de Rosas fortifying their collection and selling just as well. “What I’ve learned more than anything else in so many years is pretty typical — everything in this business has its ups and downs, you know, like life usually does. Your skills … as a ‘survivor’ just depends on how well you can change with other people and with life,” says De La Rosa. Over 20 albums, two Grammys, several other music awards, personnel changes, and more recently, their own record label, Urbana Records, La Mafia has refined their textures and become comfortable in their own skin. They’ve also proven themselves to be completely in tune with their fanbase and its collective opinion. The band’s latest record, Para El Pueblo, is a very good illustration of that concept and their appreciation — the album’s overall sound was dictated by the fans’ desire for the band to return to the synthesizers/keyboards pop cumbias that made them popular in the first place. “What happened was we’d been getting away from keyboards a while, veering more towards pop and then more accordions, then we stopped touring a while and just kind of let everything be laid back, just be,” says De La Rosa. “But then for this we decided to go with the original sound — the one that generated all the hits — but modernizing it a bit, giving it a different spin.” A different spin includes various souped up dance-heavy remixes and a version of the title track featuring Juan Gotti, a Houston rapper. The record itself is safe, with all of the usual elements in place: “Dejame” is a strolling cumbia with lots of skeletal keyboards and ardent, sincere vocals; there’s the sparkling balladry of “Matame Con Tu Veneno”; the dark “Arráncame el Corazón”; and sprinkles of jubilant accordion on songs like “Convencerte.” Three karaoke tracks follow, padding the album’s 10-track simplicity. “The plan is continuing to grow with fans and what they like,” says De La Rosa. “It’s worked really well for us so far.” La Mafia has no plans for a huge tour as in years past, though several 25th anniversary shows are in the works for both the U.S. and Mexico. De La Rosa also keeps busy as a spokesman for the Red Cross in Houston’s Latin community, as well as participating in fundraisers for the Red Cross and AIDS Foundation Houston. He is also in the preliminary stages of launching a solo career on the side: he’s currently meeting with producers and songwriters to select material, decide on whether the album will be all in Spanish, though he says he’s leaning toward a bilingual offering with tracks in English as well. “All I know at this point is that I want it to be something completely different — if I wanted to do something that sounded similar to La Mafia, I’d just do another project with the group,” De La Rosa says. |
La Mafia » Listen to La Mafia on Batanga's Tejano station » Subscribe to Club Batanga to watch videos and more! What I’ve learned more than anything else in so many years is pretty typical — everything in this business has its ups and downs, you know, like life usually does. Your skills as a ‘survivor’ just depends on how well you can change with other people and with life -- La Mafia |
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