The Hot Club of San Francisco brings its gypsy jazz to Honolulu

In this age of musical fads, it’s unusual to find a style that sticks around. Gypsy jazz, which originated with Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in the 1930s, is one that has stood the test of time.

“Part of its timelessness is that it’s got something for everybody,” said Paul Mehling, who brings his Hot Club of San Francisco to the islands this week. “It’s got everything. It’s got romance, it’s got bravado, it’s got showmanship but then it’s also got mystery and tenderness. It’s sort of like a banquet for the emotions.”

Gypsy jazz, also known as jazz manouche, gypsy swing or hot-club jazz, is characterized by a percussive rhythm section, bittersweet harmonies and swinging, singing virtuosic solos on guitar and violin. Reinhardt, a Belgian-born gypsy, developed the style. Many of his songs, performed with violinist Stephane Grappelli leading the way, are now considered classics.

Mehling started his band in the late 1980s and has made it one of the top groups of its kind in the world. Though many cities, including Honolulu, have a “hot club” — the generic name given to groups that play in that style — Mehling’s band was the first American band to play at the Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt in Samois sur Seine, France, the epicenter of gypsy jazz and the town where Reinhardt retired.

Reinhardt sustained crippling burns to his left hand. With the ring and pinky fingers of his left hand mangled and limited, Reinhardt essentially relied on his middle and index fingers to stop the strings, moving them up and down the fretboard and creating different colorations and harmonies.

As lead guitarist, Mehling, 59, uses Reinhardt’s techniques when it suits him, which is most of the time.

“It’s not on purpose, but if you put on somebody else’s shoes, you kind of walk more like them,” he said. “I’ve just found through the years that using the two-fingered technique I can get more of that sound. It’s definitely the way to think about guitar when you’re trying to sound like Django. Because of his handicap, he played guitar differently than other people.

“Really, it’s a whole different mental approach to playing the guitar.”

Mehling’s group is loaded with talent. Violinist Evan Price, who won two Grammys as a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet and is one of the most versatile players in the business, has mastered Grappelli’s swinging, singing style. Bassist Sam Rocha is also impressive.

“With both me and Evan and me and Sam, after we played together once, it was like, ‘Where have they been all my life?’” Mehling said.

French-born singer-guitarist Isabelle Fontaine and rhythm guitarist Jordan Samuels fill in with “the pump,” the driving rhythm that is so central to gypsy jazz. “Without the rhythm guitars it’s not gypsy jazz,” Mehling said.

While the group plays many of Reinhardt’s standards, it also covers tunes by other bands, with the Beatles’ hits proving especially popular. A Beatles song has appeared on most of its recordings, and last year the group released its 12th album, “John Paul George & Django,” which consists of 15 Beatles songs, including “Michelle,” “Hey Jude” and “Yellow Submarine.”

“I think one of the reasons why a lot of people think they don’t like jazz is because they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t recognize the songs,” Mehling said. “We have found through the years that covering a Beatles tune is a good way of getting attention. People go, ‘I get it. I see what you’re doing now.’”

Expect a good time, no matter what kind of music you grew up with.

“I joke that our music appeals to both kinds of people with blue hair,” Mehling said. “Old folks, they get it because maybe they’re more familiar with swing music, but young people just seem to like anything that’s done well.”