page_title: Chilly Gonzales
section_title: The Berlin years
hierarchical_section_title: Chilly Gonzales / Biography / The Berlin years
caption_attribution_description: Gonzales playing at the Mod Club in Toronto, Canada. The instrument is a grand piano by Steinway &amp; Sons.
context_page_description: Jason Charles Beck, professionally known as Chilly Gonzales, is a Grammy-winning Canadian musician. Currently based in Cologne, Germany, he previously lived for several years in Paris. Known for his albums of classical piano compositions with a pop music sensibility, Solo Piano I and Solo Piano II, as well as his MC and electro albums, he is also a producer and songwriter.
  Gonzales broadcasts a web series Pop Music Masterclass on WDR, the documentary Classical Connections on BBC Radio 1, The History of Music on Arte, and Music's Cool with Chilly Gonzales on Apple Music's Beats1 radio show. He has written several newspaper and magazine opinion pieces in The Guardian, Vice, Billboard, and others. He is the younger brother of the prolific film composer Christophe Beck.
context_section_description: Finding dealing with the expectations of the Canadian music industry difficult, Gonzales moved to Berlin in 1999, despite speaking no German. He declared himself the President of the Berlin Underground and adopted the stage name Chilly Gonzales in 1999.
  With this change in image came another major change in Gonzales's musical style. His four albums on the German label Kitty-yo (Gonzales Über Alles (1999), The Entertainist (2000), Presidential Suite (2002), and Z (2003)) were largely built around rap, though his skills as a keyboardist were demonstrated on a series of interspersed instrumental tracks. European critics and audiences were more receptive to the eclectic and experimental nature of Gonzales's output. His first Kitty-yo single, "Let's Groove Again", became a dance floor hit upon its 1999 release. It was used in a 2007 BBC promotional trailer for their new TV programme The Restaurant. Gonzales performed regularly at nightclubs and on the summer pop festival circuit.
caption: Gonzales at the Mod Club in Toronto 2009.
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