Oscar Aleman

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Jorgelina Alemán - Morena

click on the photo to enlarge

online OSCAR ALEMÁN DISCOGRAPHY DISCOGRAFIA

http://oscar-aleman.opweb.nl

Saturday, October 10, 2009

The earliest history of Oscar Alemán's life and career has been discussed in the contribution His European Career recently released on this Oscar Alemán blog. In the Dutch Doctor Jazz Magazine ( DJM 206 - September 2009) Christian Van Den Broeck published an article titled Robert de Kers ( 1906-1987) which contains some new information about the period Oscar left the Harry Fleming Band and started as a member of the Josephine Baker Baker Boys. As the article was written in Dutch most of you won't have access to this source, I'll post the info today in this small contribution.
Another article, Harry Fleming - "Der Dandy aus Harlem", written by Rainer Lotz gives some detailed information about the Harry Fleming band and the participation of Oscar Alemán in this group. This one is in German, so a good reason too to translate the info into English. I've combined both articles to introduce you some new info about this period.
The family name of Harry Fleming is written as Fleming or Flemming. I have chosen for the former, which seems to be the eldest form: Fleming.

In the winter of 1928-1929 Harry Fleming performed in South America and on the 24th of January 1929 his revue Hello Jazz got its premiere in Teatro 18 del Julio in Montevideo ( Uruguay). Les Loups, Oscar Alemán and Gaston Bueno Lobos, were one of the acts. In Februari - March of 1929 the revue came to Europe and in March 1929 they performed in Paris, where Ray Butler, an American saxophone and clarinet player, joined the group. In June 1929 they performed for the very first time in Spain in Hello Jazz - Das horas en Nueva York in the Teatro del Gran Kursaal from San Sabastian.

They also performed the month to follow in Barcelona, Saragossa and Valencia. In July 1929 Sam Wooding y Alabarderos joined the group for a series of performances. The Harry Fleming revue played at the Exposicion Internacional in Barcelona ( summer 1929) and several more gigs in Spain. Rainer Lotz lists it all. In April 1930 Harry Fleming played in Brussels at the Palais d'ëté and mid-June 1930 in Amsterdam.

Robert De Kers ( photo courtesy: Jean Robert archive)

The article about Robert De Kers starts to tell about Robert De Kers earliest career, playing in the Hot Pickers directed by Gianni Del Dello, an Italian band, and his return

to Belgium in September 1929 to play with the Candrix brothers. (Fud and Jozef). He played in the Merry Grill, a club in Brussels, that was closed in 1930. Robert started in Cabaret - Theatre des Dix Heures with the Harry Fleming band, featuring Egide Van Gils, Rene Compere, Jules Testaert and a guitar duo, named Los Lobos ( Les Loups) with guitar player Oscar Alemán.

The next month the Harry Fleming band played at the Varieté Theater Die Drei Linden in Leipzig-Lindenau. During this period they performed at a gig at the Hannover Tivoli during the second half of July 1930 and a month later Harry Fleming was billed as .. mit seiner Amerikanischen Yazz-Varieté-Schau (sic) in the Hamburger Hansa-Theater.

In the program the guitar duo Les Loups was mentioned as one of the parts of the program. At that time the Harry Fleming group was labeled as the 16 Blue Birds-Yazz. In October 1930 the Harry Fleming revue Hello Jazz performed at the Nürnberger Apollo Theater and now Les Loups is billed as ... die berühmten Hawaiian-Gitarren-Spieler (sic). During the month of November and December 1930 the revue was playing at the Hamburger Hansa-Theater again. In December 1930 the band performed also in Berlin and it is interesting to learn that three Dutch musicians from the Ramblers Dansorkest were performing as a vocal trio (!): Maurits Dreese, Eddie Meenk and Wim Poppink.

In January 1931 the revue played at the Saarbrücker Apollo and late January 1931 they were in Mailand, San Remo and Genova. In May 1931 they performed at the Teatro Nuevo in Barcelona as the Follies de 1931 and in the Teatro Romea in Madrid. It must have been around this time that Los Lobos left the Harry Fleming band.

The Harry Fleming band, a very successful band, in artistic way, but financially a mess. While in Spain the band had to be discontinued. Roy Butler, an US musicians who played with Harry Fleming since March 1929, when he joined the Fleming band in Paris, said about Harry Fleming: Personally, he wasn't a bad fellow, just a bit unwise. He was always overspending money he didn't have. He'd hire a show into a city without having enough to get them there. ....... We never knew if he was going to get enough money to get to the next theatre or not ( Storyville no. 71 June-July 1977 ) The Roy Butler's Story (Peter Darke and Ralph Gulliver)(p. 184).

Robert De Kers, real name Robert De Keersemaecker, started his own band, the Cabaret Kings, with Mike Ortuso, banjo player, Jules Testart, Carus, Chacarra, R. Echapare and two Spanish saxophone players. Also Oscar Aleman became part of the band, that played at the Alcazar and the Stambul in Madrid. Rainer Lotz tells that Gaston Bueno Lobo traveled to Parish to play for Josephine Baker. Robert De Kers ( Rainer Lotz names him René De Kers, which seems to be wrong) should have introduced Gaston Bueno Lobo to Josephine, but the members of Josephine’s band didn't want Lobo. They loved to have that brilliant other guitar player that had stayed in Spain, Oscar Alemán. And so it happened. Gaston Lobo returned to Rio de Janeiro, desperate and depressed. He became a musician for the Radio Mayrink Veiga in Rio for which he played up to 1937. He recorded in 1932 for Columbia and in 1936 for Odeon with the guitar player Laurindo Almeida, who was playing since 1936 for that same Brazilian radio broadcast networks. Gaston Bueno Lobo passed away in 1939. It is said that he had suffered from cancer and committed suicide. Jørgen Larsen wrote about that in a contribution New Info on Gaston Bueno Lobo. As told, Oscar Alemán, together with Jules Testaert found a job in the revue band of Josephine Baker, The Baker Boys, directed by Leon Jacobs. There were nine Belgian musicians in that band. Oscar Aleman also started to pe

rform with his old Harry Fleming colleagues Rene Compere and Jules Testaert and when Josephine Baker asked Robert De Kers to form a new band, Robert traveled to his native country, Belgium and engaged several musicians: The new band was called The 16 Baker Boys and contained Jean Omer on sax, Jules Testaert on trombone, Pierre de Bom at the drums, Robert De Kers on trumpet ( and of course musical director), Fritz Stammer at the piano, Michel (Mike) Ortuso and Oscar Alemán at the guitars, Gabor Radics violin, Arthur Saguet sax, Fernand Coppieters piano, Francois "Sus" Seluppens bas, tuba and sousaphone, David Van Wezel trumpet, Lucien Devroy piano and J. Brys violin. With this 16 Baker Boys Robert De Kers joined Josephine Baker on tours along France, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy and Switzerland. The article reads that in January 1933 Robert De Kers restarted his band The Cabaret Kings, without Oscar Alemán, and performed at the Kursaal in Oostende ( along the Belgian coast), The Century Hotel in Antwerp and the Atlanta in Brussel.

This article wil be posted in Dutch at the Keep Swinging blog later this year.

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl

Saturday, September 05, 2009

CABEZA HINCHADA

When Oscar Alemán resumed his recording career for the Odeon label in May 1951 after a hiatus of more than three years where no new recordings were made or released, it was with a new formation of his band. The previous formation, labeled OA y su Quinteto de Swing (- from 1943 to 1947, in fact a sextet), had been dissolved and the new group, now labeled OA y su Conjunto de Jazz or OA y sus Orquesta de Jazz on records, had new members, most often a band consisting of the leader and an octet of three violins, clarinet, piano and rhythm. With this formation (- a kind of OA with strings) Alemán recorded 60 sides for Odeon from May 1951 until June 1957, the most prolific period of his recording career following great success with the public
through frequent live performance and radio work at Radio Belgrano. The repertoire of Alemán's new formation continuously included popular swing tunes, often coupled with a popular Latin ditto on the flip side of records to increase promotion of the band to a larger audience. The Latin repertoire was carefully picked out with due respect to the charts it seems, probably a policy approved of by the financial management of Odeon. Following this procedure several Brasilian mega hits were also recorded by Alemán and his band, always with Alemán's personal touch and arrangements that would distinguish his version from other recordings of the tune.

The first session recorded by OA and his new formation was scheduled at 16. May 1951 where just two tunes were recorded, a swing/fox trot arrangement of RIO SWANEE (Stephen Foster)(mx 18012) and Alemán's rendition of the baião CABEZA HINCHADA (Hervé Cordovil) (mx 18013). The session was released on the shown Odeon 78 rpm (Odeon 55240) and had CABEZA HINCHADA on the A side, which was a clever choice by the management of Odeon, as this Brasilian tune was highly popular at the time - a hit tune designated to draw the attention of the record buying public.

The tune CABEZA HINCHADA was composed by Hervé Cordovil (see picture) in 1949 as 'Cabeça inchada' with added lyrics in Portuguese and was recorded in Brazil for the Continental label March 1951 featuring vocalist Carmélia Alves, who had a hit and was a success with her issue of the song. You may hear this recording in streaming audio from the online facility at Instituto Moreira Salles by clicking here

'Cabeça inchada' was labeled as a 'baião' in terms of the musical style of the tune. The baião is a Northeast Brazilian rhythmic formula that became the basis of a wide range of music like forró, côco, and embolada. The baião originated with the native peoples in the Northeast of Brazil incorporating elements of indigenous, mestizo, African, and European musics and is most associated with the State of Pernambuco, just north of Bahia. The baião is very much a rural music and for a long time was eschewed by the urban upper classes in Brazil, but around 1950 this musical style was discovered and brought to the attention of the music industry in Brazil thanks to musicians like accordionist Luiz Gonzaga who almost singlehanded introduced the baião to a broader audience after moving to Rio de Jainero. Composer Hervé Cordovil was one of several others to take advantage of the craze following the introduction of the baião in Rio, and his 'Cabeça inchada' remains a classic of the genre with more than 50 different re-recordings of the tune.

If you listen to Oscar Alemán's version of the tune (- reissued on the OA con Ritmos de Brasil cd, EMI, 541686), you'll have yet another rendition of 'Cabeça inchada' or - as it was titled in Spanish - CABEZA HINCHADA ( meaning 'swelled head' in English!). Compared to the initial recording by Carmélia Alves Alemán's is played at a slower tempo, has an introduction of the melody through a very delightful guitar solo showing off Alemán's ability to create an intimate mood further underlined by his singing voice following the guitar solo - it's almost softspoken near whispering. The lyrics are sung in Portuguese like the original issue, and the accompaniment further frames the intimate mood of the tune - only piano, bass and drums are featured on the recording. With this recording of 'Cabeça inchada' Alemán was introduced as a crooner, a singing fashion of the time popular all over the world, but today his rendition is worth remembering thanks to his very tasteful guitarsolo on the recording, I think.

Alemán obviously had success with his version of 'Cabeça inchada' judging from the comments of the announcer of the Radio Belgrano fragment of 28. June 1952 saved on acetate. At that occasion a live-recording of the tune exists, almost similar to the issued recording by Odeon. Furter Alemán has a short demonstration of the baião style at this session playing solo. Without doubt, the baião also had success with the Argentinian audience, and as a follow-up of this success Alemán was to record more baião tunes during the next sessions for Odeon. Already the next session scheduled at 11. July 1951 has a recording of another mega hit by Hervé Cordovil, the baião PÉ DE MANACÁ, which you may listen to in the original issue by Hervé Cordovil featuring vocalist Isaura Garcia by clicking here

However, the best known baião recorded by Alemán probably is his version of Waldir Azevedo's 'Delicado' (mx 18250, Odeon 55318) from 26. or 31. October 1951. You can read more about Azevodo's version here

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Show Time!

Today, when people, who didn't have the age and good fortune to experience Oscar Alemán live on stage, are listening to his records, they may seem to forget that Alemán's success as a musician largely depended on his ability to entertain audiences attending his live performances. Reports and tales from people, who actually experienced his live stage acts together with his Quinteto de Swing or Orquesta de Jazz, often have pointed to Alemán's good humor and joking on stage. Earlier, this was a natural part of entertainment to keep up the high spirits of the audience so that people would not get bored with the show. In Alemán's case humor was an integrated part of his concept of 'good music', this aspect is detectable in many of his solo contributions as small quotations from unexpected tunes within the actual tune being played. Further, some of his vocal contributions on records also reflect a good sense of humor, - humor thus seems to be the well of aqua vita, from which great entertainers and stage acteurs get their inspiration to stand the pressure of staying in the spotlight at ease.

To illustrate what good humor means in entertainment I found an uploaded video at YouTube reflecting the subject and further refering to a tune also recorded by Oscar Alemán - Enjoy John Reynolds and The Ditty Bobs performing "You Made Me Love You" sung in Spanish like Alemán's version ("Estoy Enomorado") and with great whistling and guitar playing

To end this small entry you may enjoy another uploaded video, this time featuring the original sound track from Alemán's recording of "Estoy Enamorado" - WARNING: The accompanying moving pictures are for gents only, but I think ladies will forgive them - and me, as well - having a healthy laugh following the 'naughty' but rather 'innocent' show on screen from anno dazumal. Anyway, I hope you to enjoy

Friday, July 03, 2009

Dedos Duros

On June 17 1957 Oscar Alemán recorded his last registered session for the Odeon label in Buenos Aires, 4 tunes were recorded with accompaniment by Alemán's regular Orquesta de Jazz, two fox-trots - DE BUEN HUMOR (In The Mood) & OSCARINADAS, a composition by Alemán, - and two Brasilian pieces: a samba by Jair Amerin & Dunga, CONCEIÇAO, and Alemán's own DEDOS DUROS, a choro that demands the skills of a master guitar player to be performed fluently. The title of the choro means 'hard fingers' in English, but I think most other guitarists with lesser skills than Alemán would prefer 'sore fingers' as a more proper title! The piece really is a finger buster to master - if you are a guitarist, you have the opportunity to study a transcription of the tune by following the links here

DEDOS DUROS was issued on a Odeon 78 rpm (Odeon 74343) . As mentioned, the tune is a choro and draws inspiration from this typically Brasilian instrumental musicstyle including long scales of notes picked rapidly in succession involving a technique more suitable for the Brasilian bandolim or cavaquinho than the conventional guitar, indeed. The composition has two parts only that are repeated, but it's only after introducing the melody by the violins that Alemán's guitar dives in the solo, halfway during the recording. Thus, at first the arrangement seems a bit disappointing, as the violins' part of the game steals the attention of the listener from the start by introducing the tune, but you could also say that the strings build up a tension in the recording setting the guitar solo in focus - an intension supported by the closing of the recording, which again has the strings repeating the melody with Alemán in the background playing chords and fill ins as during the start of the recording.

Whatever your taste of the recording, the arrangement is paying its due to the traditional way of playing choro in an ensemble, and this is a crucial point in appreciating Alemán's efforts. He always had great respect for the Brasilian music tradition and never mixed up the rules in performance of tunes connected with this tradition, a fact that is underlined in the recording of DEDOS DUROS, which has no improvisation of the melody. Alemán may be considered a straight jazz guitarists of the Gypsy tradition by many, but his concept of how to handle a tune properly is of Brasilian origins, even when it comes to improvising during some swing standard tune - this is one of the aspects, that makes Alemán's guitar work unique, I think. He was the first to naturally incorporate Brasilian elements of playing in his guitarstyle decades before the bossa nova wave fused the concept of modern jazzguitar playing.

I was thrilled by finding a live-performance of DEDOS DUROS at YouTube, here performed by a guitarist of the same origins as Alemán, Omar Mambrin - a small profile in Spanish is available here

From a concert at Complejo cultural Guido Miranda 24 May 2009 Omar Mambrin performs his rendition of Alemán's DEDOS DUROS - enjoy!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Just A Little Swing

In a historic perspective, but with a contemporary understanding, it may seem strange and truly unjust that Oscar Alemán only had the opportunity to record under his own name one single time while living in Paris, France throughout the 1930s. We could have expected that his position as a featured artist with Josephine Baker and director of her famous live-orchestra, the Baker Boys, would have given him the chance to sign a contract with a major record company like Columbia that in fact issued the recordings of Mdm Baker. Moreover, he had contributed with great guitarplaying on records recorded by expatriate American musicians like Freddy Taylor and Bill Coleman, and he had showed off that his skills as a musician also included mastering of popular genres like the French musette as a member of accordionist Gus Viseur's l'Orchestra Victor. Outside Paris he had participated in a Danish Jam Session recording with violinist Svend Asmussen and at the same session cut two guitar solos, four 78 rpm sides in all that forever will stand out as a highlight of recorded string swing jazz in Europe of the 1930s. However, still reflecting the historic view, we must not forget that Paris in the 1930s was the scene for another guitar genius, Django Reinhardt, who was heavily promoted as the star of string swing with the QHCF and frequently recorded by Charles Delaunay's Swing-label. Thus, Django may have been the only guitar star to be noticed by record company deputies as well as the general public thanks to the promotion provided by Charles Delaunay, while other guitarists like Oscar Alemán were left outside the spotlight. However, a historic view must not forget the fact that it also was Charles Delaunay's Swing-label that finally offered Alemán the opportunity to record under his own name in 1939.

On April 5, 1939 Alemán went into the studio of the Swing label in Paris and recorded 4 sides in a trio setting; the session was issued on two 78 rpms, Swing 59 and Swing 213, and included recordings of three standards: "Russian Lullaby" (OSW-68, iss. Swing 59), "Dear Old Southland" (OSW-70, iss. Swing 213), "Jeepers Creepers" (OSW-71, iss. Swing 59) and one original tune by Alemán, the above shown "Just A Little Swing" (OSW-69, iss. Swing 213). The trio consisted of Alemán on lead guitar, Wilson Myers bass and vocal, John Mitchell on rhythm guitar. Alemán's sidemen in the trio were both members of reedplayer and director Willie Lewis' orchestra that hosted several expatriate American jazz musicians during the 1930s and had success in Paris and on tours all over Europe and North Africa.

Wilson Myers had arrived to Europe with Lucky Millinder's Orchestra and settled in Paris where he joined Willie Lewis. Myers began his career as a drummer with Bessie Smith mid-1920s, then joined King Oliver as a string bass player; he also played banjo and guitar professionally and was a member of the highly popular string/jive ensemble Spirits of Rhythm early 1930s contributing with vocal and string bass on recordings by the group. - John Mitchell's professional career began early 1920s in New York City where he strummed banjo accompaniments in a band led by Johnny Dunn accompanying singer Edith Wilson, then he joined Sam Wooding's orchestra and went with the band for a stay in Europe from 1925. In Paris he switched to Willie Lewis' band in the early 1930s as a member of the rhythm section holding the band's rhythm guitar chair.

The four sides cut by Oscar Alemán Trio may sign Alemán as the leader, but Wilson Myers almost steals the show on the three standards adding great vocal and string bass playing to the arrangements, however, the lead guitar contributions by Alemán are inspired and well executed as well, strongly supported with great accompaniment by Mitchell's rhythm guitar. The highlights of the session are "Russian Lullaby" and Alemán's own "Just A Little Swing", which on the record label also is attributed to a second composer, J. Rancon, whom I have not been able to locate - maybe some of the readers of the blog can help and provide info? - Both "Russian Lullaby" and "Just A Little Swing" have great solo contributions by Alemán, who seems to have swithced his commonly used steel body resonator guitar in favour of a more conventional wooden box for this session. Both tunes were later recorded again by Alemán, "Just A Little Swing" had a new arrangement with his Orchesta de Jazz in 1953 and was recorded on the Odeon 78 rpm shown below, while "Russian Lullaby" was recorded in a slower version without vocal on the Redodel album "Alemán '72".

The 1939 trio session by Alemán belongs to the memorable swing recordings of this almost invisible guitar great from his stay in Europe, all four sides have been re-issued on the 'Swing Guitar Masterpieces' double-cd by Acoustic Disc (ACD-29).

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Nega do cabelo duro

Recently I noticed the shown sheet music for purchase at eBay, a standard piano version of the tune 'Nega do cabelo duro', a Brasilian batucada by David Nasser and Ruben Soares composed for the carneval in 1942. The lyrics (- in Portuguese) mock vanity and the black female hair-style in vogue at the time:

Nega do cabelo duro

Qual é o pente que te penteia?