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Listening Quest #8: Chilly Gonzales

Tuesday, January 5, 2016 by Vicki Martin | Uncategorized

Happy new year! Since the new year is all about new things, let's have some new music! This week I'd like to introduce you to Chilly Gonzales who is both a pianist and composer. He started out as a pop musician and still works as a producer and songwriter for pop musicians like Feist. If you remember the original iPad commercials, then you probably remember his song, Never Stop. He put out a couple of albums, Solo Piano and Solo Piano II, both of which are - you guessed it - solo piano albums with music that he composed. His style on these albums is a cross between classical and pop - those who listen to classical music regularly would consider it to be more pop music, and those who listen to pop music regularly would consider it to be more classical. In his latest album, Chambers, released in 2015, he swings closer to the classical side by adding the Kaiser String Quartet to create some modern chamber music. This song, Odessa, is from that album, and here he is to introduce it to you himself.

Oh, and Chilly Gonzales also holds the world record for the longest solo-artist performance with a total time of 27 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Wow.

Extra Exploring: Chilly also did an interesting little set of masterclasses for CBC Music, explaining musical principles like moving motifs, I-V-I chord progressions, and cadences using contemporary Canadian pop music. Have a watch: