The Hot Club of San Francisco to fire up Jazz and Blues Fest
By Glenda Robinson

Concert
Hot Club of San Francisco
Sun, Nov 25
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Hernández Macías 62

The Hot Club of San Francisco—“intricate, scorching, and brilliant,” says Acoustic Guitar magazine.

Paul “Pazzo” Mehling—guitarist, composer, jazz educator and leader of the Hot Club of San Francisco.

Django Reinhardt, inventor of Gypsy jazz and inspiration of the Hot Club of San Francisco.

This November we are lucky to have a most unusual act on our roster— the all-acoustic string ensemble of the Hot Club of San Francisco. They play November 25 and tickets go on sale in November at the Teatro Ángela Peralta box office. 

This group has its roots in the smoky cabarets of 1930s Paris, where an illiterate nomad guitarist named Django Reinhardt teamed up with violinist Stéphane Grappelli to birth an entirely new art form— Gypsy swing jazz, or Jazz manouche.

Paul “Pazzo” Mehling, the Hot Club’s guitarist-composer leader, fell in love with this obscure music as a kid, went off to Paris in search of genuine Gypsy teachers, then formed his influential group in 1993. Today he is one of the leaders of the Jazz manouche revival.

I spoke with Paul at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Glenda Robinson: We’re really excited that you’re coming back to San Miguel.

Paul Mehling: Me, too! We haven’t been there as a group since 2000. Evan Price, our violinist, is also the violinist for The Turtle Island String Quartet, and he’s played at the last two Chamber Music Festivals. So that’s how the gig came to be.

GR: In addition to delivering some dazzling music, you’re also known for your work as a jazz educator. Do you plan to weave some info into your act?

Paul: Absolutely. Our audiences usually contain two kinds of people— those who know about Gypsy jazz, and those who think we’re playing some weird kind of bluegrass. We like to put this music in context. I’ve got some great stories about Django that not many people have heard. 

GR: Do you guys plan to play mainly Jazz manouche classics?

Paul: Yes, we’ll play some of the hallmarks…but from the beginning we’ve also played other tunes in the Gypsy jazz style—everything from the Beatles to Duke Ellington. The joke in our group is that when we approach a new song, we start by asking ourselves WWDD? (What would Django do?)

GR: And what’s the meaning of your name? Aside from the fact that you play hot music, and maybe that you are also hot guys….

Paul (blushing over the telephone): Actually, it refers to the Hot Club de France, where Gypsy jazz got its start. The Hot Club was a group of Paris record collectors who got together to share and listen to music. Records were expensive in those days…and fragile. Not everyone could afford them. The Hot Club de France started having concerts, looking for acts that would appeal to visiting Americans. As soon as Django and Stéphane joined the group, they were an instant sensation. And an oddity as well. French people playing jazz—at the time that was unthinkable.

GR: Tell me about the other members of The Hot Club of San Francisco.

Paul: Well, many in San Miguel know our violinist Evan Price, who has been with us since 1998. Evan’s just a phenomenal player—he’s been the US Scottish Fiddling Champion, the Kentucky State Fiddle Champion, twice Canadian Junior Fiddle Champion and five-time Canadian Novelty Fiddling Champion.

Jason Vanderford (guitar) has a serious talent for swing. He’s been with us since 2004, and also co-leads a group called the Hazardous Dukes, which tours the US playing its version of “junk-rock.”

Jeff Magidson (guitar) grew up in San Francisco, and has had a 20-year career performing throughout Europe as both a solo artist and with countless groups. When he inevitably discovered Jazz manouche in France, it was a “jaw-dropping” experience. He spent many hours learning to master the subtleties of Gypsy rhythm guitar, and when he recently returned to the Bay Area, he joined our group. 

And finally, we have Clint Baker, whom I call “the supreme jazz floater” because he plays all the rhythm section instruments, trombone, trumpet, clarinet and sax. He’s been paying taxes for the guys in his band since he was fourteen. His “Clint Baker’s New Orleans Jazz Band” was featured at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

GR: Speaking of Monterey, your group just played there for the first time. How’d it go?

Paul: We were blown away by the response. We played at one of the smaller stages, with about 2,000 seats, and it was standing room only every time. People were elbowing each other out of the way to get in.

GR: If people want to bone up on your music before the concert, which CD do you recommend for purchase or download? 

Paul: I’d have to say our tenth and newest, Yerba Buena Bounce. On it we play some of my originals, and also some covers, like the Beatles song “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” which we accompany with bandonean. Dave Grisman, the killer mandolin player, joins us on two tunes. And we tackle some of the most technically difficult Django tunes. I think we did them justice….

Note: Paul is being modest here. “What impresses me most about this CD,” writes Don Mopstick, editor of Jazz Me News, “is the continuing musical maturation of Paul and his violinist partner Evan Price, along with an increasing group cohesion overall. As the years go by, they seem to have gained a certain measure of confidence in execution and a more emotionally direct approach in swinging, as if they know exactly what they want and how to get it.”

This year’s XIII Festival Internacional de Jazz y Blues in San Miguel is November 21–25, and features a sterling lineup of players and acts. For more information about the festival, go to www.sanmigueljazz.com.  

The festival is still looking for financial support and volunteers. To learn about the benefits of sponsorship, contact producer Doug Robinson at jazzooo@aol.com  or director Antonio Lozoya at sanmigueljazz@yahoo.com.  To volunteer your time and talents, contact volunteer coordinator Carol Lopes at clopes123@gmail.com.  

Glenda Robinson lives in San Miguel with her musician-composer-arranger-producer husband Doug Robinson and their three hounds, Duffy, Phoebe and Lulu, who make their own kind of music.

Canadian piano duo returns for Pro Musica concerts
By Bob Kelly

Concerts Daniel Moran Sat, Nov 3, 7pm Maneli Pirzadeh Sun, Nov 4, 5pm St. Paul’s Church Calle Cardo 6 Tickets 150/50 pesos

The Canadian piano duo of Daniel Moran and Maneli Pirzadeh, who were well-received in their first appearance in San Miguel last year, returns November 3–4 for two Pro Musica concerts.

Known for his poetic lyricism and intensity of expression, Moran has enjoyed an international career as a soloist and chamber music player in England, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Japan as well as Canada and the US. Moran’s concert November 3 will include works by Carl Vine, one of Australia’s most prominent contemporary composers, and by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin and Franz Liszt.

Twice a laureate of the International William Kapell piano competition in Washington, DC, Moran also won the second grand prize at the CBC young performer’s competition in Ottawa and first prize at the National Festival of Music in Victoria. A native of Calgary, Moran has performed on numerous radio stations in Canada and the US, including CBC Radio 2, Classical FM Toronto and WCLV in Cleveland.

Maneli Pirzadeh is considered among the finest musicians of her generation. Praised for sensitivity and intensity, her ardor and refinement have captivated the enthusiasm of both public and critics alike. Her concert November 4 will include works by Joseph Haydn, Francis Poulenc, Claude Debussy and Robert Schumann.

Pirzadeh also has recorded Glazanov’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with I Musici of Montreal and received international praise for her performance. She has performed frequently on CBC Radio in Montreal and Toronto.

Born in Iran, Pirzadeh was the first prize winner of the Prix d'Europe, the Tremplin International Du Concours de Musique de Canada, the National Festival of Music CBIC Canada and Oxford Arts Center International Competition, Canada. She is active as a soloist and chamber music player in festivals in Canada and the US.

Pirzadeh completed her artist diploma at the Glenn Gould Professional School of Music in Toronto and obtained her doctorate in interpretation from the Université de Montréal in Quebec, where she now serves as professor of piano.

Moran participated with Pirzadeh in a broadcast recording for CBC Radio that included a newly commissioned work by Canadian composer Michel Frigon and Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.

Tickets at 150 and 50 pesos are available at La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Casa de Papel, Mesones 57; La Conexión, Aldama 3; St. Paul’s office weekdays 11am to 2pm; and at the door one hour before concert time. For details see www.promusicasma.com.