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Dear Editor,


The Opera House auditorium was elegant and inviting.  It set the ideal mood for the "Hot Club's" program which was much more than we expected.  HCSF opened with several HOT jazz/swing tunes in tribute to the legendary Gypsy jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt.  The music was rhythmic, melodic, lively, and performed flawlessly!  Audience enthusiasm was immediately set on "high" and never came down.  Paul Mehling (aka Pazzo) is the founder of the Hot Club of San Francisco and the lead guitarist extraordinaire.  I've taught guitar since 1982 and started playing in 1967.  Whether on stage or film, I don't remember seeing a guitarist who is Pazzo's equal and I'm certain I've not seen any who are his better... very fast but very accurate; meticulous but never mechanical.  Pazzo's versatility makes his guitar welcome and effective in any style of music.  Jeff Magidson and Isabelle Fontaine performed expertly on acoustic rhythm guitars; consistently providing the right "canvas" upon which the melody was painted.  Young and talented Sam Rocha can cuddle his upright bass sweet and low or pluck the strings with bouncing drive like that Kansas wind!  And finally the fabulous violinist Evan Price (aka) Zeppo), who plays with the finesse of the great jazz standard Stephane Grappelli.  Zeppo can bring you to tears with graceful tones or make you "jump and jive" with the stroke of his bow.  Yet all of these outstanding musicians played as one refined unit, with obvious regard for each other.

Only jazz?  Oh no, there was much more.  Mr. Mehling, being a master of entertainment, has crafted several most unique programs based upon nostalgia and cinema creativity from 1912 to 1930, which was far ahead of it's time.  Paul Mehling has combined this early  cinema (from comedies to dramas) with HCSF playing live, like a movie soundtrack, as background for these silent films.  Like the pyramids, the films leave the audience thinking, "That was old, but awesome!  How did they do that?"  And the diversity of music performed with these films is impressive; classical, waltz, tango, bolero, even a lullaby -- which is one of Mr. Mehling's original compositions.  I must interject that as a composer Paul Mehling is truly  superb!  His jazz pieces are indeed "hot as mama's frying pan" while his sonatas are "as peaceful as a prayer". 


From every perspective, from community to concert, this was a wonderful and memorable trip to Kansas -- yes, better than Oz, Toto!  We are sure to return and it would be awesome if that marvelous old Opera House could get the Hot Club of San Francisco to return for another show as well.   On the road back to Nebraska, I commented to my wife, "Honey - McPherson is the kind of town with people you would like to see again...". 

Thanks McPherson.


Nik and Lindy Ratzlaff
Kearney Nebraska