Gonzales at the Barbican
Simon Hunter gives Chilly Gonzales a thumbs up. Or at least he would, if he weren't too cool to do such actions
In the full flow of a performance Chilly Gonzales is a sight to behold. Dressed in a black satin dressing gown and wasabi green slippers his unkempt, sweaty hair hangs across his face as he hammers the keys of a beautiful Steinway. This is a man who loves to let his wild imagination gallop and two weekends ago, in the Barbican Hall, he was given the BBC Symphony Orchestra to, in his words, be his “sixty musical slaves”.
To say that Gonzales’ imagination and showmanship are greater than his musical talents is not to do the man a disservice. Chilly Gonzales has released pop albums and rap albums, he set a world record for the longest continual playing of the piano, had his music used by Steve Jobs to sell trillions of flashing pieces of glass and metal, and even made an “existential sports comedy” film focussing on the little-known sport of jazz-chess ( ...and breathe). However his most successful release has been the Solo Piano album he gifted the world in 2004. In this work he put the bravado aside to record half an hour of beautifully delicate piano melodies, showing us that behind all the madcap rap lyrics and ridiculous attire lies some serious talent.
It was with his second, recently released solo piano compositions that he began the Barbican show. With Gonzales illuminated bya single spotlight and positioned centre stage the crowd hung on every creak of the Steinway’s hammers. Solo Piano II carries on where the first left off; melancholic and
... behind all the madcap rap lyrics and ridiculous attire lies some serious talent
touching, Gonzales’ love for the minor keys is on full display. Indeed it was this preference over the “politically conservative” major keys that he proceeded to demonstrate by shifting classics such as ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Frere Jacques’ and ‘Chariots of Fire’ into the minor realm, whilst making jokes about World War II and his jewish heritage amongst other things. You wouldn’t get that on “Later... With Jools Holland”.
The entertainer extraordinaire then composed a piece, live, with the aid of a child plucked from the audience before debuting his rather ambitious project of composing a piano concerto. I’m not used to appreciating extended pieces of classical music, my initial wonder tends to wane after a few minutes and my mind drifts off. Unfortunately Gonzales was unable to prevent this fate with his effort.
Things picked up again, however, as Chilly used the orchestra to full effect in creating a barn-storming version of his electro-rap epic ‘Take Me To Broadway’. The show climaxed as Gonzales instructed, through conductor Jules Buckley, the creation of pop music’s equivalent of Frankenstein’s Monster. The bass line of ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, a pitch-shifted variant of the ‘Billie Jean’ riff and the strings from Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ were all combined and rapped over. And it pretty much worked. Not content with that however, Gonzales descended into the crowd and tried his very best at ‘surfing’ the Barbican; almost certainly the first time crowd surfing has been witnessed at a venue more used to playing host to the high-brow end of live music.
After much applause for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a standing ovation for the man himself, Gonzales returned to the stage tobewilder the audience one last time by reciting a medley of ‘Gogol’ and ‘Overnight’. Sat on the floor. With his head underneath the piano.
This was a performance in which one of the greatest imaginations and entertainers in music was given the tools he’d previously only dreamt of. The result was beautiful, hilarious, stupefying and brash. Chilly Gonzales: a true entertainer.
