Gonzales Makes His Move With Jazz-Chess Film, 'Ivory Tower'

In the cafeteria of the Crescent School for boys in north Toronto, amongst a wall of class photos, is a 20-year-old portrait of one Jason Beck, a noble-looking prefect. He seems fully prepared to embody the school's motto: 'Men of Character From Boys of Promise.'

Around the back of the building, on a folding chair in a parking lot, slouches a man in a dull brown overcoat with unkempt hair and a scruffy beard; he rolls a cigarette with hands adorned in fingerless gloves. This is Chilly Gonzales, the artist of character that promising boy Jason Beck has since grown into.

Despite his bohemian attire and aura, the pianist, producer, rapper -- and now screenwriter and actor -- is as driven as he was when he ruled the school's hallways. Gonzales, who has lived in Berlin and Paris for the past decade, returned to his hometown to star in the feature film 'Ivory Tower,' which he wrote with Parisian director Céline Sciamma.

Gonzales plays the film's hero, Hershell Graves, a renegade Canadian chess champion who struggles to introduce his new concept of "jazz chess" -- a spontaneous, collaborative variant on the game -- to a baffled world. A championship tournament pitting Hershell against his brother Thadeus (played by Montreal DJ/producer Tiga) is being shot in the Crescent School's gym.

Now completed and amidst a series of screenings around North America and Europe, 'Ivory Tower' grew out of Gonzales' mostly-instrumental album of the same name. His experience as a school prefect, he says, helped him organize the endeavour. "I have the personality of a leader, for better or for worse. I credit the school with my work ethic."

No one would dispute Gonzales' determination and focus. Last year, he set the Guinness World Record for the longest piano performance at just over 27 hours. Evidently, he was encouraged at an early age. "When I displayed my musical genius," he says, with a notably straight face, "[my teachers] took it and ran with it, and started putting me in competitions. They started letting me skip phys-ed classes so I could practice. I was treated much as a football star would be treated if he got a scholarship to university."

And yet, his character in 'Ivory Tower' seeks to do away with competition. Hershell, Gonzales says, "is the kind of person I would rail against -- a purist, someone who has naïve ideas of what artistic expression is. Tiga's character represents probably more my actual viewpoint now."



As he speaks, Tiga, clad in a sleek suit and tie, kicks a ball against a wall as if he were a restless kid at recess. His character, Thadeus, is an ultra-competitive megalomaniac who steals Hershell's girlfriend, Marsha -- played by Gonzales collaborator and former children's drama teacher Peaches -- and disparages his brother's attempts to revolutionize the chess world (Another frequent Gonzales collaborator, Feist, also has a small role in the film).

In person, the duo's repartee makes them seem like real-life brothers, with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry. In fact, they often speak as if reading a script:

Gonzales: "It took me a long time to come to terms with my technical gift because it meant I had no taste. All music is appealing because I can hear it scientifically. When people have taste as their frame of reference, and they're talking about, 'I don't like that music,' or 'I like this music,' to me, it sounds completely ridiculous."

Tiga: "I don't have that curse of technical ability. I just have pure taste -- gut instinct."

Gonzales: "I can't help but feel superior to Tiga because of his reliance on whether he likes something."

Tiga: "I thank God every morning for being exactly who I am."

The two musicians seem like opposites. Gonzales is twice Tiga's size, and has an air of Serge Gainsbourg-esque nonchalance (fittingly so -- Gonzo's hands stood in for those of actor [Eric] Elmosnino in the louche French singer's biopic). Whereas, the dapper Tiga paces around, everywhere at once, rehearsing his lines. Each claims that his character is an outgrowth of aspects of his own personality, and yet the two find a healthy span of common ground. Both enjoy pushing people's buttons in every medium they can work with.

'Ivory Tower' director Adam Traynor, a member of the Berlin-based puppet hip-hop troupe Puppetmastaz with Gonzales, recalls one of the Canadian pianist's theatrical concerts. "He did a character that was pretending to be interviewing a guest, but with a fake French accent. That persona came out on stage, and we had me reacting [from the crowd] as a slightly offended French guy and eventually getting completely booed and yelled at in an Andy Kaufman way -- I'm the only one that knows it's this joke, and the rest of the room hates me. It's maybe a bit dark to say, but people are really easy to manipulate, and this was just a little experiment."

Similarly, on Tiga's website, the producer participates in a fake Charlie Rose-style video interview that's presented as real. In it, he comes across as a narcissist who boasts that he's "known and generally praised" for his "false humility."

For both musicians, presenting oneself as artistically "genuine" is itself a disingenuous act. Creating art may be the fulfillment of a dream, but at the same time, for the professional artist, it's still work. In a quiet moment between scenes, Tiga admits, "Making music and touring -- it's not such an emotional exercise. I'm quite a private person in a lot of ways, and whatever my real life is, I don't really see [my career] as part of it -- it's quite separate. That's the origin of this character: it's all business in a way."

'Ivory Tower,' as one might expect, isn't a conventional film. Even though it offers a number of amusing set-pieces, including fake commercials for ridiculous products and a hilarious jazz-chess jamming scene, the good guys don't crush the bad. Instead, the film suggests a new path can be forged between capitalism and artistic freedom. Similarly, making 'Ivory Tower' is at once a means for the musicians to stretch out artistically -- "You never really regret trying something new," affirms Tiga -- and a promotional tool.

Most "indie" musicians studiously refuse to be drawn into discussions of commerce, but Gonzales is the opposite -- unapologetically so. "Musicians have to grow up and realize they've made a deal with the devil. If you get onstage and sign record deals, you're there to win. Let's get beyond authenticity. Once we admit there's none, then the entertainment can begin."

'Ivory Tower' Screening Dates:
New York: September 21 @ Galapagos Art Space
Hamburg: September 24 @ Fliegende Bauten
Frankfurt: September 26 @ Kuenstlerhaus Mousonturm
Berlin: September 28 @ Babylon Cinema Theater
Paris: October 3 @ Cine 13
Vienna: October 1 @ Votivkino Cinema
Geneva: February 11 @ Theatre Forum-Meyrin