The Hot Club of San Francisco - Original Gadjo
(Hot Club Records, 2024)
Is there a music more steeped in Romanticism than that made by Quintette du Hot Club de France? I can't imagine a sound as historically provocative. Hot Club music summons a vision of 1930s prewar Paris: small clubs, humid nights, cigarette smoke, wine, and the collision between American Jazz and Manouche Romani culture. This is an international swing with a capital “S.” Historically central to this sound were guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli. Both men generated their own romantic myth with this music, perhaps the original myth.
OGs - Original Gadjo
Gadjo are what outsiders (non-French or -Gypsy) enthusiasts captivated by that Hot Club sound as typified by Reinhardt and Grappelli from back in the day. Leading the OGs into the second quarter of the twenty-first century are the Hot Club of San Francisco, who for 35 years have been expanding the reach and depth of Hot Club music. Original Gadjos features original compositions from past and present HCSF members. The goal of this release was not mere reiteration of the same old Django songs, but an addition and enlargement of that canon.
If it were possible, HCSF makes this Gypsy Jazz more jazzy with the silky, slinky “Running To You: Blues On The G String” and the circuitous “I’ll Call You Back” which is something akin to late hard bop disintegrating into early post bop. “Manic Swing” is Hot Club less the Xanax plus the Adderall. “Busy Bone” recalls several standards one can’t name but know by heart. This is friendly, unthreatening music with one intention: happiness. Paul “Pazzo” Mehling and his merry band assertively put the smiles on listeners’ faces with Paul “Pazzo” Mehling.