This weblog will give you information about the "El Redescubrimiento de Oscar Aleman" project, the "Rediscovering of Oscar Aleman" project.
Oscar Aleman ( 1909 - 1980 )was an Argentinean jazz guitar player, entertainer and showman, born in Argentina, lived in Europe (1930s)and returned to Argentina ( 1940 - 1980 ).
He was one of the best jazz guitar players of his time.Oscar Alemán . La Guitarra Embrujada
A couple of weeks ago history professor and journalist, Sergio A. Pujol, has published his book titled Oscar Alemán—La guitarra embrujada (- in English: Oscar Alemán—The Haunted Guitar, Planeta de Libros (340 páginas), Buenos Aires, Argentina), his biography of Oscar Alemán. I have not seen a copy of the book yet, but below I'll add some links to guide readers who are familiar with the Spanish language to further info.
The publisher's info about Pujol's book is accessible here
Argentinian paper Página 12 carried an excerpt of the book, here
Finally, Sergio Pujol was interviewed about the book in a radio program at 221 Radio. Part of the interview was filmed and uploaded at YouTube in two videos, inserted below
Here's the second filmed extract of the broadcasted interview
I look forward to reactions from readers who have had access to Pujol's book. Reviews in Spanish and/or English are also most welcome. Contact me at the e-mail below. Thank you in advance for your collaboration!
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Jo
keepitswinging.domain@gmail.com
posted by Jo at 9:04 PM
4 Comments:
Dear Alemaniacs, Estanislao my Brother is reading the book this days and he says its excelent! I will read it and give my review too. Best regards. Jose
Hello People
The book is trul wonderful. Writing a book for Alemaniacs is truly difficult...let´s be honest, everyone of us has seen the marvelous Hernan Gaffet documentary. We all know the incredible things that happened to Oscar in his life, and we read once in a while new discoveries on this page. It´s almost impossible to find something new to tell us. But Pujol´s manages to do that impossible. It´s amazing the level of detail and investigation that he´s made with this project. I can truly asure that every Alemaniac will find many things he didn´t know, or things he barely knew now are presented with much more detail.
The book deal heavily with the 30-40 years. While the 40s phase could be reconstructed with the argentinian magazines and interviews, the 30s phase looks much more difficult to tell from Argentina. It´s "the stuff of legend", but Sergio manages to take it down to history, with incredible documentation.
Now I´d love to see that amount of labour and love applied to biographies of people like Luis Salinas, Dino Saluzzi, Enrique Mono Villegas, or Roberto Grela.
Some little bits...it´s mentioned that Segovia liked Oscar playing...never heard that
Also interesting it´s the fact that Harry James wanted to hire Oscar for his orchestra sometime in the early fifties.
One doubt i have. Sergio´s book emphazises that Oscar lost a bit of his technical chops during his large 60s hiatus. If you hear him on any of the "Redondel" 70s albums, you´ll mostly agree with him
But there´s some obscure 1975 session, never released on his lifetime, that´s truly amazing! The last recorded studio session of Oscar, listed on Jan Evesmo pdf Oscar discography. Hear "Caravan" incredible version, full of power and stamina that doesn´t sound like coming from a frail 66 year old man...
I've just finished reading this wonderful book. To tell the truth I had no idea who Oscar was, rather than a majestic jazz guitar player. Sergio Pujol manages to get you deep into Oscar's histpry, music & personality, to the point of really merge this three facets.
The book is wonderful and absolutely readable.
I just read the book and is excellent. Is both like a novel (full of dramatic moments) and a history book. It describes the music scene in the years of president Peron and the era of dancings with live performances organized by sports clubs and unions. I live near to the club where Malosetti first saw Alemán as it is described in the book. My review in spanish http://digesto-rutinario.blogspot.com.ar/2015/07/la-guitarra-embrujada-de-sergio-pujol.html
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