Hot Club of San Francisco : "John, Paul, George & Django"
To hear the ensemble Hot Club of San Francisco live, or on any of their 14 albums, is to be carried back to the 1930s and the small, smoky jazz clubs of Paris or the refined lounge of the Hotel Ritz. The musicians – including Paul Mehling, Isabelle Fontaine, Evan Price and Sam Rocha – celebrate the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Their contemporary jazz and swing, often called gypsy jazz, has entranced audiences around the world for more than 20 years. Mehling has been dubbed the godfather of American gypsy jazz. Fontaine, born and raised in the French countryside, had no intention of becoming a professional musician when she started singing with friends for fun. Price is steadily becoming one of the most respected jazz violinists of his generation. Rocha is largely self-taught on the string bass. The ensemble borrows the instrumentation of violin, bass and guitars from the original Hot Club while breathing new life into the music with innovative arrangements of classic tunes and original compositions from the group’s superb lead guitarist, Mehling. Featuring the amazing violin of two-time Grammy winner Price, the velvet vocals of Fontaine and a swinging rhythm section, the group never fails to surprise and delight as reflected in their 2016 album John, Paul, George and Django.