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Carnegie hosts Le Jazz
Le Jazz Hot press photo color
The Hot Club of San Francisco will perform at the Carnegie Arts Center Le Jazz Hot show on Tuesday. - photo by Photo Contributed

The Carnegie Arts Center is bringing the sounds of the Paris jazz scene circa 1930 to their stage Tuesday with the Le Jazz Hot show.

The Hot Club of San Francisco players with band leader Paul Mehling will perform at Le Jazz Hot show highlighting the gypsy jazz style introduced to the music world in 1930 by Jean “Django” Reinhardt.

Reinhardt was a Romani guitarist working in the Paris area in the 1930s. He is believed to be the pioneer of gypsy jazz, a music style that combines acoustic guitars, bass and violin with a swing sound.

Mehling is the leader of Hot Club of San Francisco and the man dubbed the godfather of American gypsy jazz. He was introduced to Reinhardt’s music at a young age through the record collection his parents kept.

The Hot Club of San Francisco also features Isabelle Fontaine on guitar, Evan price on violin, Jeff Magidson on guitar, and Sam Rocha on bass. The Hot Club of San Francisco’s first album was produced by Mehling and put out on the band’s own label. Since then, they’ve put out nine more albums of gypsy-flavored jazz including “Lady in Red” in 1999, featuring Maria Muldaur, Dan Hicks and San Francisco jazz singing legend Barbara Dane; “Swing This” and “Postcards from Gypsyland,” which includes tangos, waltzes and Mehling originals.

In 2000, The Hot Club of San Francisco was the first American band invited to play the Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt in Samois-Sur-Seine. Most recently, Mehling and the band have contributed three original songs to the soundtrack of the newly released film, “My Old Lady,” starring Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline and Kristen Scott-Thomas.

The show is set for Tuesday. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and the concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. The performance features a no host beer and wine bar. Tickets are $25 for non members and $20 for Carnegie Arts Center and $125 for a reserved table of four. Tickets are available at carnegielejazz.eventbrite.com.