Tag: Chilly Gonzales

Chilly Gonzales live performance FM4

A favovite of Monsieur Pas de Merde, here is the wonderful Chilly Gonzales performing a session from 2018

Tracklist:
 0:00:42 Pretenderness 0:05:00 Famous Hungarians 0:08:27 Chico 0:10:37 Nimbus 0:13:44 Prelude in C Sharp Major 0:16:30 Present Tense 0:19:51 Kenaston 0:22:44 Rideaux Lunaires 0:32:56 Be Natural 0:36:44 Oregano 0:43:51 Cello Gonzales 0:48:16 Dot 0:52:57 October 3rd 0:56:43 Kopfkino 1:04:30 Why don’t we disappear 1:11:30 Smells like Teen spirit / Hit me baby one more time 1:12:03 White Keys 1:14:59 Advantage Points 1:20:07 Knight Moves 1:30:42 Thriller Impromtu 1:34:29 So-Called Party Over There

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Chilly Gonzales Announces New Holiday Album Featuring Feist and Jarvis Cocker

Chilly Gonzales

A very chilly christmas includes covers of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and David Berman’s “Snow Is Falling in Manhattan”

Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales has announced a new holiday album. A very chilly christmas arrives November 13 (via Gentle Threat) and features Feist and Jarvis Cocker. The album includes covers of Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and David Berman’s “Snow Is Falling in Manhattan,” as well as standards like “Silent Night” and “Auld Lang Syne” (which Gonzales reworked as “Auld Lang Mynor”). “The Banister Bough” is the album’s sole original song. Find the full tracklist and watch a trailer below.

“Christmas is a time of very mixed intense emotion for me, and the existing canon often sounds like a forced smile,” Chilly Gonzales said in a press release. “Christmas is a typical time for superficial happiness, but also a time for reflection and mourning the sad events throughout the year, and to play the songs in a minor key makes Christmas more authentic and realistic.”

 

 

Source: Chilly Gonzales Announces New Holiday Album Featuring Feist and Jarvis Cocker | Pitchfork

Gonzo in Vienne

By Michael Stevenson

“Let me hear your balls, Vienne!”

On June 29, I was among the lucky 7000 concert-goers gathered in Theater Antiques to behold piano man Chilly Gonzales perform at the 2019 Vienne Jazz Festival. Jazz à Vienne has been celebrating the world of jazz since 1981. The festival has a variety of concerts and different stages – the grandest being the Roman theater, built in 1 AD.

As the show started, most of us sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the arena were fanning ourselves with our programs, as the temps rose over 110 degrees before the sun went down. Chilly, it was not. But the performer nicknamed “Gonzo” cooled the audience with his humor, original songs and an impressive array of piano styles – not strictly jazz, but also blues, classical and his own uniquely “Gonzo” flavorings.

Between songs, Gonzo joked with the audience in both french and english. His french dialect has a Montreal flavor (he was born there). And I detected a slight Brooklynese present in his English – especially when he commanded the audience of clap-a-longs to follow the beat by watching “my fucking foot!” The sweaty crowd in the ancient arena laughed and sang, and most of of us stayed on the beat of his bouncing bedroom slipper.

Gonzales, whose (birth name is Jason Charles Beck, has collaborated with artists Jarvis Cocker, Feist, Peaches, Drake and Daft Punk.

In 2018, Gonzales launched his own music school. According to his Wikipedia entry, “musicians from around the world joined him to study at The Gonzervatory, an 8-day all-expenses-paid residential music performance workshop in Paris. The workshop included coaching sessions with Gonzo, followed by masterclasses from Gonzales’ friends and collaborators.” Cool!

Vienne’s Roman Theatre was built in 40-50AD and seen as the largest in Roman Antiquity

I actually came to see Gozo in Vienne quite by accident. I had purchased tickets to see Camille perform in the “Up Above My Head” collaboration, which was actually the previous night in Vienne, but I had confused dates (as I often do when on a lengthy European vacation.) So while I was quite depressed about screwing-up and missing my favorite French chanteuse Camille, Gonzo pulled me out of my funk with his wonderful show. It’s always great to see someone completely new in concert and to become an immediate fan. C’est moi!

I’d also like to note how helpful the Vienne Tourist office was, as well as the Jazz à Vienne ticket manager, who granted my wife and I free replacement tickets to see the Chilly Gonzales show after I explained how we confused our dates. As has consistently been our experience, the French people were gracious and accommodating to we stumbling and fumbling travelers.

Merci beaucoup, Vienne and Gonzo.