Gonzales
Depending on who you ask, the question "who is Gonzales?" will elicit various answers. Other than "je ne sais pas", there is "prankster rapper from the Berlin underground", "workaholic Grammy-nominated arranger/producer", "melancholic piano virtuoso" or "softly powerful crooner”. And now “Guinness World Record holder”…

It's been a short ride, beginning with electro-hipster classic album « Gonzales Uber Alles » in 2000. Since then, every album brings a new musical style, image and media strategy. What never changes is Gonzales' musical genius, showmanship……and ego.

Gonzales left Canada in 1998, where a failed major label deal served as a crash course in the reality of the music business (which still existed then). They wanted to drop him but he hired a good lawyer and they eventually paid HIM to leave the label. But it wasn't enough.

So on to Berlin. Those hipster years saw Gonzo being asked to remix Daft Punk and Bjork, though he opted to "remake" them instead. He pronounced himself President of the Berlin Underground in a legendary Press Conference, and people thought he was joking. He was invited to David Bowie's Meltdown Festival in London. But it wasn't enough.

So on to Paris, where he lazily collaborated with his former touring sidekick Feist on what would be her first album "Let It Die" which eventually sold half a million copies. He began a partnership with French producer Renaud Letang, arranging and producing for Jane Birkin, Charles Aznavour, and reality star Christophe Willem. He said "non" to a succession of young French singer/songwriters because they just weren't good enough, except for Teki Latex and Phillipe Katerine. He even played drums on an Iggy Pop song (Motor Inn, 2004).

In 2004, « Solo Piano » (Universal Jazz) became Gonzales' best selling album. It introduced Gonzo to an audience of real human beings who actually buy music sometimes. The piano pieces were used in documentaries, in films. The 2006 double DVD « From Major to Minor » master-class had Gonzo giving surreal music lessons to his audience, while wearing his slippers, and sharing the stage with cohorts Mocky, Feist and Jamie Lidell for a “White Gloves Concert” of each others’ most well-known songs.

Gonzale had finally been embraced by hipsters and humans alike. What could this dysfunctional megalomaniac do after the transition from outside to insider? He started by releasing "Soft Power" in 2008, ten songs of up-tempo 70’s soft rock mixed with intimate ballads, and playing a sell-out show at Paris’ Olympia accompanied by Peaches, Feist and Katerine during which bandmember So Called cut Gonzales in half in a magic trick box. But since that still wasn’t enough, Gonzo accepted several of the more interesting offers that came his way in the wake of this new found fame. Offers to incarnate Serge Gainsbourg, to play his music for the soundtrack - and his hands for the screen - in the much anticipated first feature film of renowned comic book artist Johann Sfar, offers to co-write a book of music inspired by recipes inspired by music, with Pierre Gagnière, the 3 star chef and owner of London’s “Sketch” and Paris’ “Le restaurant de Pierre Gagnaire”. And still found time to write and produce tracks for new albums by Mocky, Peaches and Jamie Lidell, and collaborate with artists as diverse as Arielle Dombasle and Tiga.

2009 brings on new adventures … Gonzales breaks into television. ”Maestro Gonzales“ is a pilot series of four-minute episodes for French national TV, in which Gonzo’s dandy professor tendencies are brilliantly drawn out in the surrealistic “salon” where Gonzales hosts specials guests to teach them the basic tenets of music like melody & major/minor.

But to fully satisfy the insatiable ambition of Gonzales, only one thing was left to do and he did it: May 16 – 18, 2009 Gonzales broke the Guinness World Record for the longest solo concert … by playing TWENTY-SEVEN hours of piano, over 200 different songs, in a marathon concert at film director Claude Lelouch’s Cine 13 Theatre in Paris. A record 85 000 people from all over the world tuned in to the live webcast, that became the days” n° 2 “twitter trend”.

What will this piano aficionado do next?

Източници
Gonzales

Последна редакция от bobovm - 14.05.2010, 18:46