There has been a group of Django-inspired guitarists in Buenos Aires for a long time; the best known of these are Walter Malosetti, Ricardo Pellican and Carlos Zaragoza. Malosetti was a student of the legendary Argentine guitarist Eduardo Ravera who made some recordings with the Chilean jazz violinist Hernan Oliva. Later on Malosetti formed the group Swing 39. This band was quite good and they made a couple of CDs, playing mostly the standard HC repertoire - I can't remember all the members of this band, though. Ricardo Pellican started as one of Malosetti's students at about age 5. He's a fine guitarist in a variety of styles and an excellent composer. He's very famous in Argentina. Carlos Zaragoza was Oscar Aleman's friend and rhythm guitarist in Argentina and he too made recordings with Hernan Oliva. Later on he played in Jorgelina Aleman's band - she's Oscar's grandaughter! These guys are all renowned musicians in Argentina and made a CD for Jon Larsen in 1997 full of cool music, especially Pellican's composition "Apasionado".
There is ample video on youtube of all these guys.
There was a luthier named Sergio Repiso in BA who made interesting Selmer-style guitars - there is info in various places on the internet.
Here is a very interesting article about Oscar Aleman's Selmer which seems to have been heavily modified in Argentina.
The whole Argentine gypsy jazz history is interesting - quite a lot of great music came out of that scene. They have a Django festival - here's an interesting facebook page.
Didn't Louis Vola and Henri Salvador both spend time in BA in the '40s?
I've listened to some tracks from Oliva's '70s albums on YouTube and they're really good.
(I forgot where I was for a minute and found myself very confused by "standard HC repertoire." I immediately thought "hardcore repertoire" and started to imagine which Minor Threat and Gorilla Biscuits songs might be considered "standards." )
Jim Hall was his friend and even gave him his "Blues for Walter" in one of his visits to Buenos Aires. Walter passed away in 2013 and his son Javier is one of the best bass players and jazz composers of Argentina: https://es-la.facebook.com/Javier.Malosetti
Comments
Never thought of him in a GJ context.
But a couple of searches revealed that he was a big fan of Oscar Aleman. Cool.
Thanks.
There is ample video on youtube of all these guys.
There was a luthier named Sergio Repiso in BA who made interesting Selmer-style guitars - there is info in various places on the internet.
Here is a very interesting article about Oscar Aleman's Selmer which seems to have been heavily modified in Argentina.
http://oscar-aleman.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-rare-guitar.html
The whole Argentine gypsy jazz history is interesting - quite a lot of great music came out of that scene. They have a Django festival - here's an interesting facebook page.
https://es-es.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.364687300250647.102309.363388067047237&type=1
I've listened to some tracks from Oliva's '70s albums on YouTube and they're really good.
(I forgot where I was for a minute and found myself very confused by "standard HC repertoire." I immediately thought "hardcore repertoire" and started to imagine which Minor Threat and Gorilla Biscuits songs might be considered "standards." )
Sp