Friday, May 16, 2008

Oscar Alemán y su Quinteto de Swing

Being fascinated by the Argentine guitar player Oscar Alemán and his music, we, love to google the internet now and then hoping to find new information. Last week, Joergen pointed me to some great pictures by Oscar Aleman y su Quinteto de Swing from the mid 1940s.
The first one is a picture featuring Oscar Aleman and his Quinteto de Swing with Oscar Alemán in front, Ramon M. Caravaca the drummer man, Manuel Gavinovich, the violin player, Caferino Albuquerque, piano player, Luis Gavinovich the bass player and Oscar Guillermo Barbieri, who plays the rhythm guitar. With this Quinteto, if you can count you'll learn that it is a sextet, Oscar performed and recorded from late 1943 ( with different piano players ) up to late 1947. This group was a continuation of his previous Quinteto ( that ensemble had five players) he founded when he returned to Argentina from Europe early 1940s, that was broken up because of problems between Oscar Aleman and his violin player Hernan Oliva, who became a popular Argentine artist with his ensemble after he left Oscar's band. When Oscar founded his second Quinteto his drummer man Ramon M. Caravaca joined him, and because the first Quinteto was very popular, he kept the name ...... although it was in fact a sextet.
The second and third pictures are from the Oscar Aleman y su Quinteto de Jazz, in fact the same ensemble. It is a flyer wich contains, from left to right, Luis Gavinovich on bass, Ramon M. Caravaca on drums, his brother Manuel Gavinovich on violin, Oscar Aleman on solo guitar, Caferino Alburquergue at the piano and Oscar Guillermo Barbieri who played rhythm guitar.
It is rather weird that the flyer contains the titles of six los sucesos del momento, tunes that seem to be made popular at that time, but never were recorded, but one, by this band. The tune El Saltarín Escocés was recorded in Buenos Aires on the 24th of July 1945 by Oscar Alemán y su Quinteto de Swing for Odeon.

The publicer of the pictures is Sara Gonzalez, born Gavanovich. She is the daughter of the bass player in the Oscar Aleman Quinteto de Swing, Luis Gavinovich ( papá Luis) and a niece of Tio ( = uncle) Manuel. Maybe you were surprised because there are differences in the surnames, she told me: But that is the consequence of misspelling in the inmigration offices in Argentina. Father and I , we are both Gavanovich but as musicians they were known as brothers Gavinovich as you can see here. I hope to show you more pictures later of these two men thanks to Sara. Gracia Sara !! Hans Koert - keepswinging@live.nl
This contribution is also posted at the Keep Swinging web Log.
Keep swinging
Hans Koert

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