Solo Piano (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

You don’t run across a résumé like Jason Beck’s too often. The Canadian-born Beck reinvented himself as Chilly Gonzales, a gonzo hip-hop and electronica producer and MC of some repute. Trained as a child on piano by his parents, Gonzales would use the instrument to help generate themes and ideas for his composer and producer duties, but he eventually turned his full attention to piano music. The result is a blissful, minimalist collection of “16 piano themes for left-hand accompaniment and right-hand melody,” composed and performed in its entirety by Gonzales. These are fragile, almost childlike patterns that seem to draw on elements of (what we call) classical, jazz, folk, Tin Pan Alley pop, and 19th century parlor music, without ever settling in any particular vein; “Manifesto,” for one, seems to display all of these influences. It’s hard not to think of Erik Satie (listen to the exquisite, delicate “Armellodie”) and other golden-age French pianists, thanks to the impressionistic nature of these mood pieces — and, especially in Satie’s case, the music’s purity and reserve. This is simply gorgeous, often mesmerizing work, suitable for close listening or as a soundtrack to an afternoon nap.