Oscar Aleman

Oscar Alemán ranks among the top jazz guitarists active during the 1930s, yet assessing his work remains complicated by his near-identical resemblance to Django Reinhardt’s approach. Because Reinhardt was born one year later, observers have long debated whether the younger musician absorbed his phrasing from Alemán or whether the influence flowed in the reverse direction; both possibilities appear equally plausible. Alemán first took up the guitar while still a teenager in Argentina, then relocated to Europe toward the end of the 1920s, settling initially in Spain. He had established residence in Paris by 1931 and spent the years 1933 through 1935 as a steady participant in Freddy Taylor’s Swing Men From Harlem. In addition, Alemán can be heard on discs alongside trumpeter Bill Coleman and clarinetist Danny Polo, and he himself led eight selections issued between 1938 and 1939. Returning to Argentina in 1941, he continued to record until 1974, although his reputation never extended far beyond his homeland. Notably, Alemán appears never to have set foot in the United States, and the bulk of his later swing performances remained unavailable domestically aside from a handful of tracks licensed by the specialist TOM label.