Sometimes it might seem as if the Edinburgh International Festival is slightly aloof from the Fringe that runs alongside it, although the latter has long since eclipsed it in terms of size. But there is a decent whack of ‘contemporary’ music (description theirs, quotation marks mine) that is part of it. Like many things, these things only appear remote if we allow them to be. Chilly Gonzales (Jason Charles Beck to his family) last appeared half a mile up the road at the King’s Theatre with Jarvis Cocker, presenting their collaboration album Room 29 back in 2017.
Tonight is the British Isles premiere of his new album, GONZO, which will be released in mid-September. A few tracks have been released to streaming services already; the album sees him not only back on one of his album sleeves, but also singing and rapping again. He comes on stage dressed in a kimono (more about which later), and sits at his piano and with a pretty impressive band featuring a drummer, bassist and phenomenal violinist (every time I tried to get their names, they were cheered so loudly it was impossible to hear what their names might be).
I’ve yet to hear the album in its entirety, but as he launched into ‘Gonzo‘ and ‘High As A Kite‘ it’s pretty clear that this is an album you will want to hear many times over. (And buy, obviously; man cannot live on bread alone, and musicians cannot live on streaming royalties). The first track to do the rounds from the album is ‘Fuck Wagner.’ Gonzales’s father clearly loved the artist’s work, but as a Jew had to try and separate the art from the artist. Gonzales tears into Richard Wagner (who he would love to get removed from street names – he makes a reference to getting Wagner Strasse in his adopted Cologne renamed Tina Turner Strasse; there is genuinely a petition) and also makes the observation that ‘Kanye West is the new Wagner‘.
He’s also a showman; he talks about his kimono and explains the idea behind ‘Open The Kimono‘ – no racist connotations here, but the idea of being open about what the workings are behind it. Hell, he could probably sing with a lit cigar chomped in his mouth and pull it off. One of his encores is a cover of fellow Canadian Bryan Adams‘ ‘Summer Of ’69 ‘: in his hands it is neither bluster nor self-defensive irony, he takes a great song and runs with it. Literally in the case of the closing ‘Never Stop‘ he runs throw the crowd, high fiving as many of us as possible and rewarded with all the goodwill the audience could muster.
Whatever he seems to be doing musically, he does it very well indeed. This was a show that entertained, made us laugh and left us wanting more. He got a very well deserved standing ovation, and if you get the chance to see him and his band on forthcoming live dates, you should grab the chance. He doesn’t just break down genres, he brings them right back up again, and most crucially, it never ever feels like a novelty. I was expecting good things from tonight’s show; I left feeling utterly wowed.
Photo courtesy of Usher Hall website
