The Wells College Arts and Lecture Series presents The Hot Club of San Francisco, an ensemble of accomplished musicians celebrating the gypsy jazz music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s pioneering Quintette du Hot Club de France. Innovative arrangements of classic tunes and original compositions are played by the group’s lead guitarist, Paul Mehling, the amazing violin of two-time Grammy Award-winner Evan Price and a swinging rhythm section.

Their program “Cinema Vivant” calls on a tradition born in the 1930s French countryside, when gypsy caravans entertained locals with lively swing music played along to silent films projected onto the side of a barn. The Hot Club of San Francisco revives this lost entertainment through two works by European filmmaker and obscure cult hero Ladislaw Starewicz—The Cameraman's Revenge (1912) and The Mascot (1933)—as well as There It Is (1928) by American filmmaker Charley Bowers.

The performance will take place in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall on the Wells College campus. This event is free and the public is cordially invited.