We propose to describe vector mesons in a pure quark model such as the one of Nambu and Jona-Lasinio by means of four point tensor interactions, but with vanishing vector and axial couplings. This becomes possible due to tensor-vector mixing at the one quark loop level. As a consequence a bound particle with ρ quantum numbers is generated. This has the advantage of avoiding the A-π mixing which is known to generate a wrong off-shell pion wave function renormalization. In addition, there is no A 1 meson. We make our arguments quantitative by computing Euclidean correlators via dispersion relations and comparing with lattice QCD and random instanton model results.