Comment on Romeu Silva & Oscar Alemán

We have had an extensive comment from Yves Francois regarding the previous entry on Romeu Silva and Oscar Alemán that may be of interest to our readers. Yves Francois discusses the presence of Silva and Alemán on Josephine Baker's recordings of the early 1930'ies and regarding this issue Yves Francois wrote:

"(...) It is also too bad that some sources list him [Alemán] and Romeu in the 1930 recordings, I do not believe Romeu is on them (I would agree that the sessions from the summer of 1931) and, for certain Aleman was in Spain in 1930 with Lobo. I am begining to believe that Edmond Mahieux was only the director for the June 1931 recording dates (I believe it was his band on the 1930 sessions), but let Romeu and Baker's band to record (with much better results, it must be added, espically the session with Johnny Dunn, too bad no jazz solos) but I believe Romeu drops off within a year or so (he was leading his own band with Booker Pittman in it in the summer of 1934 according to Chilton' entry on Pittman, but it could have been earlier, Pittman and Coleman were with Millinder in 1933 and unlike Coleman in 1933, Booker stayed in Paris and was with Freddy Johnson by the fall of 1933)"

Can some of our readers confirm these assumptions regarding Silva's recording schedule?

Yves Francois also discusses Alemán's career as a band leader in Paris in the '30ies, he wrote:

"Off to some more data regarding Oscar Aleman, according to Bill Coleman in his autobiography Trumpet Story (page 112 English edition), he was playing with Aleman's combo from May to July 1938 at a dance hall on Rue Fountaine. It was mostly playing latin musics, something Oscar could do as well as the other Latin bandleaders in Paris (Silva, Rico, Cureva, Barreto, Guido et all). Before that Oscar was (along with Bill Coleman) a member of the excellent Freddy Taylor combo, Aleman was already not a part of Baker's group in 1935 to play in Taylor's band (picture of Coleman and Aleman is in the book "Trumpet Story"). I would presume that sometime in 1936 or 37 Oscar became a bandleader and considering the rage Cuban and Biguines rhythms had in Paris at that time, Oscar probably capitalized on it (as did Romeu Silva, considering that he went back to Paris even after he left in 1935)."

Can someone add further info regarding the bands Oscar was leading in Paris, then feel
free to post a comment.

Jo