Alemán’s inimitable style of swing guitar playing reaches back to the earliest days of Hot Club jazz. Before Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli recorded their first notes as the Quintette of Hot Club of France, Alemán was already an in-demand guitarist on the 1930’s Parisian jazz scene—leading Josephine Baker’s backing band, performing with ex-patriot American jazz musicians and even receiving an offer to join the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Without question, Ellington was correct when he remarked about Alemán, “this cat has roots.”
Your day with Oscar and Greg will be broken into three parts:
Licks, Solos and Melodic Interpretation a la Alemán
Oscar Alemán had an impeccable sense of swing and played with exciting rhythmic punctuations, syncopation, a horn-like attack, and sharp attention to detail. In this workshop, plan to learn classic Oscar Alemán guitar licks, examine a transcribed improvised solo and to develop an understanding of how he approaches a melody.
Alemán Accompaniment
Oscar Alemán rarely strummed chords to accompany a soloist. Instead, he used arpeggios, ostinato figures, counter-lines and rhythmic punctuation. In Alemán Accompaniment, plan to learn some of his approaches and tricks to add exciting accompaniment ideas to your vocabulary.
Oscar Alemán and the Art of the Out Chorus
Oscar Alemán would often compose contrafact melodies or riff choruses as the final chorus of his arrangements. In this session you’ll learn several of them while deepening your understanding to his approach to arranging.