Swing Guitar Masterpieces 1938-1957

Artist: Oscar Alemán
Label: Acoustic Disc
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 715949102929
EAN: 0715949102929
ASIN: B00000391R

Release Date: 1998-02-17

Related Categories:

Latin Pop

| Latin Music | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Latin Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Swing General

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

European Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Four On Six - The Guitar in Jazz
GLOBAL GROOVE COALITION
Western Swing what it is and what it aint
Music That Means Something To Me Pt.1
Essential Early Jazz Guitar (pre-bop)
Blues got Soul

Tracks:

Sweet Sue
Limehouse Blues
Nobody's Sweetheart
Whispering
Russian Lullaby
Just A Little Swing
Dear Old Southland
Jeepers Creepers
Sweet Georgia Brown
In The Mood
Hombre Mio (Man Of Mine)
I've Got Rhythm
Begin the Beguine
Bye Bye Blues
Negra De Cabello Duro
Besame Mucho
Tico Tico No Fuba
Temptations
I Never Knew
Caminos Cruzados (Malaguena)
Limehouse Blues
Scartunas
You Made Me Love You
Cherokee
Stardust
Honeysuckle Rose

Tracks:

Lady Be Good
Doin' The New Lowdown
Improvisaciones Sobre Boogie Woogie
Swingin' On A Star
Melancolla
Sentimental of Journey
Como Te Llamas
Bugle Call Rag
Darktown Strutter's Ball
I'm Beginning To See The Light
Blue Skies
Twelfth Street Rag
Diga Diga Do
Swanee River
Vieni Sul Mar
Delicado
Scartunas
Mia Casita Pequenita
Crazy Rhythm
Daphne
Dolores
April In Portugal
You Belong To Me
Who's Sorry Now?
Tiger Rag
Tea For Two

Similar Items:

Buenos Aires-Paris: 1928-1943
Pioneers of Jazz Guitar: 1927-1939
Django in Rome 1949-1950
The New York Sessions 1926-1935
Nada Mas Que un Poquito de Swing

Customer Reviews:

It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Latin Tinge.......2004-10-02

Great set from a great and often overlooked guitarist. Aleman swings for sure, and although there are shades of Lang and Venuti here, comparisons with Django are inevitable; both guitarists played hot as hell. The biggest difference between the two, however, lies in how where they came from shaped the fire that flew from their fingertips. Where Django had the European gypsy influence running through his work, Aleman, being from Argentina, had what Jellyroll Morton called the "Latin tinge" running through his. The "Latin tinge," according to Jellyroll, was a necessary element for Jazz to succeed and Aleman's playing goes a long way to prove Morton right.
On the first disc "Nobody's Sweetheart" is two minutes and eighteen seconds of pure Tricone bliss. Aleman does things with his brass-bodied National guitar in this solo run that nobody else was doing on these instruments at the time. It's exhilarating listening to it and the piece can hold it's own against anything Django - or any other Jazz guitarist, past or present - has ever put to wax. "Russian Lullaby" is equally impressive, as is "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Hombre Mio," "I've Got Rhythm," "Bye Bye Blues," and the odd, yet utterly fascinating, "Cherokee." In fact, there's something - some kind of nugget or flash of brilliant audacity - in every song on the first disc that is downright astonishing. Whether it's a solo, a lick or a lead in, you'll hear something in every track that will prick up your ears and boggle your mind.
The second disc starts out as strong as the first, but starts to lose it halfway through. Whoever conceived these songs to be done the way they are here, did to these recordings what Phil Spector did to "Let it Be." In this setting, there is the unwelcome addition of, what sounds like an entire orchestra section of violins - actually it's only three violins, but they're so high in the mix it sounds like more. And while the improved recording technology of the fifties lets us hear Aleman's playing crisp and clean, the strings push the sound and songs so far over the top it it made me feel like I was listening to the score of a Douglas Sirk movie. This is not to say that there isn't any magic here. There is. "Delicado" uses the "Latin tinge" to wondrous effect and there are stellar versions of "Crazy Rhythm" and the Aleman original "Scartunas." Overall though, none of this is essential listening. That said, these string-heavy songs do a very good job of charting the progress and artistic journey of a very important player. For anyone who is a fan of Jazz and for anyone who plays guitar, this disc is a must.

oscar oscar oscar.......2004-02-29

i have been a big fan of Django Reinhardt since 1953...i can still get chills listening to certain tracks....but finding
Oscar Aleman was such a suprise...he doesn't send chills down
my spine, but he does keep my interest.....really well.

something else i have noticed...there is a great radio
station on the net "Hot Club Radio" on the Live 365 net;
and of all the Gypsy guitarists: Oscar Aleman is right in
there with all the other Gypsy/European guitarists...

so those of you new to Oscar; give him a listen.

john m.

Great guitar/mediocre accompaniment.......2003-04-30

Aleman is a wonderful player, and there are
some nice arrangements. A lot of the music
is pretty dull when he isn't soloing though.
It doesn't compare well to other small group
jazz of the time. Aleman sings and scats
in a harsh "jive" style, and the violin players
range from OK to not so good. I love swing but
don't tend to listen to Aleman's music often.
Try Cats and the Fiddle or especially Spirits
of Rhythm for joyful rhythmic playing, though
their soloists aren't as good as Aleman.

For Western Swingers Not about Django.......2002-12-20

If you like Western Swing, especially the three and four fiddle section music of the Spade Cooley Orchestra, then you are going to love the second volume of this wonderful collection. When he returned to Argentina, Aleman recorded a lot of music with three and four fiddle sections that sound a whole lot like Spade Cooley, except unlike Cooley, who forced his musicians to maintain a staid conservative "businessman's bounce" (Cooley's term not mine) Aleman and his groups really swing out. The music is great and it is clearly a direction beyond where Rheinhart went. We know that Stephen Graphelli followed Western Swing fiddlers especially Farr who ended up playing for Cooley's first band and later for Tex William's first band (composed of almost everyone in Cooley's orchestra except cooley when cooley fired them all.) There is almost no doubt listening here that there was some interchange between Aleman and his fiddlers and the Cooley sound.
Of course the first CD is excellent too. Despite the guitar shown on the Album, Aleman performed most of his prewar music on a national steel guitar.
Finally, this CD set should be in every home.

Maybe not Django, but still great!.......2002-11-22

It's probably inevitable that Oscar Aleman would constantly be compared with Django Reinhardt. They were contemporaries and friends, and often would be playing different clubs in Paris on the same night and then get together afterwards to jam into the wee hours of the morning. (One can only wish that some of those sessions had been recorded and preserved!) In a way it's an unfair comparison, because there's probably never been any guitarist anywhere who could play like Django Reinhardt (and many have tried). Whether or not he measures up to Django's untouchable standard, though, doesn't take anything away from the greatness of Oscar Aleman. He had his own style and virtuousity, and I'm sure that anyone who enjoys listening to Django would love these recordings as well. In fact, on those songs that they both recorded (Limehouse Blues, Sweet Georgia Brown, Honeysuckle Rose, Tea for Two, etc.) it's a lot of fun to hear their different approaches. As David Grisman wrote in his introductory notes: "Aleman's contributions to an idiom pioneered by Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti and, of course, Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli are substantial. His arrangements are perhaps the most inventive and his playing is gutsy, virtuosic and inspired. Although Django's genius is unquestionable, it has always been a mystery to me as to why this other remarkable proponent of acoustic swing guitar has been so ignored and unrecognized in relation to his very celebrated friend and peer." Well, maybe with the release of this 2-CD set the oversight will begin to be corrected. In any case, it's fortunate for all of us who appreciate great acoustic guitar music that these recordings still exist, along with those old classics of Django Reinhardt.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Big Mama ~ Shanté

New City ~ Sweat & Tears Blood

Asia Enso Kai (Live in Tokyo) ~ Asia

Palomar II ~ Palomar

Pluto ~ Pluto

Collection ~ Pat Benatar

Aburadako ~ Aburadako

19 Love Ballads ~ Michael Learns to Rock

Fades Em All ~ Jamal

Crime Novelist ~ Kazh Mir