al gafa

randalljazz · #1 05-11-2009, 05:49 PM

anybody know anything about this guitarist? he's played with everybody from dizzy gillespie to carmen mccrae to johnny hartman to the monkees, but there seems to be little information about him.

thanks.

m78w · #2 05-11-2009, 07:20 PM

Never heard of him. Sadly there are a lot of players from that era that were fantastic players that have floated under the radar these days.

MW

Fernando · #3 05-11-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by randalljazz

anybody know anything about this guitarist? he's played with everybody from dizzy gillespie to carmen mccrae to johnny hartman to the monkees, but there seems to be little information about him.

thanks.

Hello Randall Jazz.
I know that is a great guitarrist (from Spain,but I don't 100% secure)that worked many time with Gillezpie.I have a Fantastic Lp from Pablo Records from him and his quintet(see PDF taht I atachment here),excuse my English.
MUCHOS SALUDOS AMIGO
Fernando

randalljazz · #4 05-12-2009, 01:53 AM

muchissimas gracias, fernando. hopefully that will be issued on cd.

marcvs · #5 08-04-2010, 01:56 AM

Hi RandallJazz,

I am glad you both (¡hola, amigo!) are interested in Al Gafa too. I happened to have once the "Leblon Beach" Pablo LP, until I divorced and my fine-singer wife "secured" it. I've sighed since for this and other 500 mostly Pablo LPs

I had not found relevant information on Al Gafa in the Internet either, but today, I happily found a link to F.L.A.C-type (lossless) files of the album, which I would like to share here: Download THE AL GAFA QUINTETO LEBLON BEACH 237 MB from files6.com

There you will find the links to compressed RAR files. F.L.A.C.s are easily restored to lossless audio files (e.g., with N.e.r.o).

Greetings from Mexico,

Marco

randalljazz · #6 08-04-2010, 05:51 AM

gracias, marco!

MrGlenn · #7 02-26-2011, 09:38 PM

I am looking for information on Al Gafa, too. I do know that he played with Dizzy, Earl May and Mickey Roker on November 15, 1975 at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto as I was in attendance and made some notes at the time. Mickey Roker is alive and well in Philadelphia and I had a very pleasant chat with him on the phone this evening. I will have to ask him about Earl the next time I speak with him. Sadly, Mickey may be the only surviving member of this quartet as Earl May passed away in 2008 and Dizzy has been gone since 1993.

Banksia · #8 02-27-2011, 09:20 AM

There was an article about him in Guitar Player Sept 1976. He would be 69 now so possibly retired.

Beano · #9 05-16-2012, 10:26 PM

I'm late to the party (as usual) --- but know a little about Al Gafa, personally. Although I haven't seen him in 20+ yrs or so, he was a good friend of my parents. NY-based and when I first got to know him, Al was guitarist at the NY Playboy Club (late 60's) playing with Kai Winding. Earl May was also part of that group, Al Foster was drummer.... they were the "house band" at the time. In addition to his noted jazz work- He did do studio work with the Monkees (used to send the albums to my brother and me, a couple of goofy kids...)and he played on Paul Simon's album Rhymin Simon ('73). He also did some live dates with Sara Vaughn, one of which was televised on PBS, and a pretty hot set as I remember.As noted in other posts, he toured quite a bit with Dizzy Gillespie
He wrote a song for Kai Winding in the late sixties, Dirty Dog. It got some airplay and although not a hit, developed sort of cult following. I think you can find it on YouTube...(although he wrote it, not sure if he actually played on the record.)
anyway, he is very fine musician and a class-act man. Last I knew (and that's been awhile) Al and his family lived in Brooklyn.

unknownguitarplayer · #10 05-18-2012, 08:14 PM

Here's an extended interview with Al:

The Al Gafa Interview..... : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive