manchester 2002 
Hot footed it down to 'Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown festival' at the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames on Saturday, to see Chilly Gonzales (as you all know, my favorite artiste!). Gonzo was as fantastic as ever. Gonzo was backed up with Mocky on the drums, and between them they belted out some quality drum and piano action, before kicking in with some gonzo "hard touches". Hard touches, because he hasn't had any "Hits". Audience participation was partaken, whistling the choruses to said "hard touches" and humming a melody for Gonzo to jam along to. Rich, who came with me, was gobsmacked at A: How good on the piano he was, and B: How damn funny he can be. A great gig and a great day.
Press Gumpf follows:
Over the last 5 years, Gonzales has tranformed himself from Berlin-based underground entertainer to Paris-based pianist and producer.From a collaboration with Daft Punk to a piano concert for David Bowie's Meltdown Festival in London Royal Festival Hall, Gonzo straddles the underground and the overground. Having just finished arranging and playing all the instruments for Jane Birkin's comeback duo album “Rrendez Vous", Gonzales is now finishing prepartions for his album "Piano", an instrumental solo piano album to be released in the autumn on Universal Jazz's "No Format" series.His first album was Gonzales Uber Alles (Kitty Yo records), a melancholic trip hop classic voted in THE FACE's Top Ten albums of 2000, featuring the UK charting single "Lets Groove Again". 2002's "Presidential Suite"(Delabel/Labels) combined cabaret and hip hop, and gave us the summer radio single "Dans Tes Yeux" featuring French chanteuse Geusch Patti ("Etienne").
The 300 some odd live shows of Gonzales were half old-fashioned (showmanship pink suit, dance routines, lots of sweat) and half surreal piano recital, ending up somewhere between Andy Kaufman, Victor Borge and Richard Clayderman. Video artist Ninja Pleasure designed the PIANO VISION projection so audiences can see Gonzales' hands up close and larger than life on a screen. There have been Gonzales PIANO VISION shows at Berlin's Volksbuhne, Hamburg's Schauspielhaus, Paris' Salle Beaubourg at Centre Georges Pompidou, the aforementioned Royal Festival Hall, and in countries such as Russia, Australia and Gonzo's native Canada.Since 2003, Gonzales has been based in Paris, producing with Renaud Letang (Manu Chao's coproducer). His role is to arrange and play all the instruments, on albums by Jane Birkin, the Canadian singer Feist and Charles Aznavour - until Mr Aznavour fired the Gonzo-Letang team late in the game and started over...This gave Gonzales even more time to prepare "Solo Piano". 16 themes for left hand accompaniment and right hand melody; the influence of French piano style (Ravel, Satie) as filtered through Canadian folk and American jazz (Nina Simone, Keith Jarrett). Throughout the album, Gonzales' former job as silent film accompanist shines through.
Press Gumpf follows:
Over the last 5 years, Gonzales has tranformed himself from Berlin-based underground entertainer to Paris-based pianist and producer.From a collaboration with Daft Punk to a piano concert for David Bowie's Meltdown Festival in London Royal Festival Hall, Gonzo straddles the underground and the overground. Having just finished arranging and playing all the instruments for Jane Birkin's comeback duo album “Rrendez Vous", Gonzales is now finishing prepartions for his album "Piano", an instrumental solo piano album to be released in the autumn on Universal Jazz's "No Format" series.His first album was Gonzales Uber Alles (Kitty Yo records), a melancholic trip hop classic voted in THE FACE's Top Ten albums of 2000, featuring the UK charting single "Lets Groove Again". 2002's "Presidential Suite"(Delabel/Labels) combined cabaret and hip hop, and gave us the summer radio single "Dans Tes Yeux" featuring French chanteuse Geusch Patti ("Etienne").
The 300 some odd live shows of Gonzales were half old-fashioned (showmanship pink suit, dance routines, lots of sweat) and half surreal piano recital, ending up somewhere between Andy Kaufman, Victor Borge and Richard Clayderman. Video artist Ninja Pleasure designed the PIANO VISION projection so audiences can see Gonzales' hands up close and larger than life on a screen. There have been Gonzales PIANO VISION shows at Berlin's Volksbuhne, Hamburg's Schauspielhaus, Paris' Salle Beaubourg at Centre Georges Pompidou, the aforementioned Royal Festival Hall, and in countries such as Russia, Australia and Gonzo's native Canada.Since 2003, Gonzales has been based in Paris, producing with Renaud Letang (Manu Chao's coproducer). His role is to arrange and play all the instruments, on albums by Jane Birkin, the Canadian singer Feist and Charles Aznavour - until Mr Aznavour fired the Gonzo-Letang team late in the game and started over...This gave Gonzales even more time to prepare "Solo Piano". 16 themes for left hand accompaniment and right hand melody; the influence of French piano style (Ravel, Satie) as filtered through Canadian folk and American jazz (Nina Simone, Keith Jarrett). Throughout the album, Gonzales' former job as silent film accompanist shines through.
No comments:
Post a Comment