In a sample of 1.5 million hadronic decays of the Z collected by the ALEPH detector, a search is carried out for the decaysB → D 0 1 (2420)l - X and B → D * 0 2 (2460)l - X. The product branching ratio for D 0 1 production is measured to be Br(b → B) Br(B → D 0 1 l - X) Br(D 0 1 → D * + π - ) = (2.04 ± 0.58 s t a t ± 0.34 s y s t ) 10 - 3 , and a 95% confidence level limit of Br(b → B) Br(B → D * 0 2 l - X) Br(D * 0 2 → D * + π - ) ≤ 0.81 10 - 3 is obtained for D * 0 2 production.A topological search sensitive to the processes above, but also to wide resonances that decay to D * + π - and to non-resonant D * + π - production is also carried out, yielding Br(b → B) Br(B → D * + π - l - X) = (3.7 ± 1.0 s t a t ± 0.7 s y s t ) 10 - 3 .Direct evidence of D * π production inconsistent with D 0 1 and D * 0 2 in semileptonic B decay is presented.