Just imagine you were coeval with Händel or Mozart and wanted to listen to some music. You would only be able to choose from a selection of three possibilities at the most: go to a concert hall, make music yourself or in case you had the privilege of noble birth, enjoy it as part of the courtly cultural life. Fortunately, nowadays music is always available and repeatable. Still, it felt as if storage data devices haven’t been invented yet, when Chilly Gonzales played the Kölner Philharmonie on December 29th. He introduced so many new, yet unfortunately unpublished pieces that it was a real treat and indulgence, but at the same time evanescence and the knowledge of singularity were omnipresent. The Faustian verse “If to the moment I shall ever say: ‘Ah, linger on, thou art so fair!’” could have been the epigraph to this final concert in 2012. Or was it a pointer to the future and into the direction of “more orchestra”?

Recent tweets between Gonzales and a follower brought an injustice to our attention:

@rachael_burns no he hasn’t . He has turned me down repeatedly . Start a letter writing campaign !

— chilly gonzales (@chillygonzales) December 31, 2012

Chilly Gonzales has made practically every song from Solo Piano Notebooks 1 & 2 available online. That’s a total of 33 songs to download, print and start playing within minutes! There are a few options for downloading and using the sheet music; here a short guide.

Whenever a leading actor wears a dressing gown in a movie, one thing is certain: In real life, the following scene would certainly take place without an audience. Chilly Gonzales’ trademark is a dressing gown; he even wears it when sharing the stage with a huge and honorable orchestra. And although it is a costume, much like in a movie, it makes him appear undisguised and approachable.

The first day of winter sees Chilly Gonzales tweeting about ‘odd’ piano tunings and Russian fruit juice melody thievery!

T. Cole Rachel’s interview with Gonzales is a captivating read. Admitting that Solo Piano II was his “most played” record of 2012, Cole goes on to elicit detailed comments from Gonzales. It appears that Cole is more than happy to prod from time-to-time, letting Gonzales’ train of thought run its natural course.

About a year ago, Gonzales was in London to record a series of “Piano Lessons for Lapsed Students”. At that time, he asked the Twitterverse what topics they would like covered in piano lessons and received a number of responses (most were covered). Later, during a rapid-fire Twitter interview session, he indicated that the lessons would be available in summer:

It’s a veritable Gonz-festival at the Canadian iTunes store! Here are the current (Dec 18, 2012) Gonzales chart positions:

Classical
Solo Piano II: #1 album
Solo Piano: #11 album
Othello: #3 song

Jazz
Solo Piano II: #1 album

On Dec 14, 2012, Chilly Gonzales paid a visit to the French radio station Le Mouv to give an in-depth interview and piano lesson to Christophe Crénel; host of the “Rodéo sur le Mouv” show. Over the course of the one-hour interview Christophe and Gonzales cover a very wide range of topics, and play a few songs:

Recently, a considerable amount of interest was generated when it was revealed that musician, and sometimes piano-battler Andrew W.K. was being ‘groomed’ as U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain.