Guitarist Oscar Aleman, Django Reinhardt contemporary and friend - Stardust, Sweet Georgia Brown and more
I only recently discovered Oscar Alemán while searching for renditions of Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby." As you'll hear on the following recordings, Alemán's playing sounds like it could've been performed by Django. The two guitarists sometimes used the same model of guitar, the d-hole Selmer Macafferi. He was a multi-talented entertainer as you'll see in the third video. A brief bio I compiled from several sources follows.
Argentine guitarist/singer/dancer Oscar Alemán (1909-1980) was a contemporary and friend of guitarist Django Reinhardt. Alemán travelled to Europe in 1929 to perform with a fellow guitarist in their duo Les Loups. Sometime during the 1930s, Alemán moved to Paris where he was hired by American-born singer/dancer/actress Josephine Baker to lead her band, the Baker Boys. The band played at Cafe de Paris where American jazz musicians would come to hear Baker sing and sit in with the band. During the period when Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli were playing with their quintet at The Hot Club de France, Alemán and his nine-piece band were also playing in Paris, at Le Chantilly.
The loud chirps you hear are not your smoke alarm telling you to change the battery.
I apologize for the noise and poor quality of this video. But it's well worth watching to get a taste of Oscar Alemán's remarkable showmanship. The clip isn't dated and I don't know what's the original source.
= new reply since forum marked as read
