George Winston

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This article is about the pianist. For the American educator and university administrator, see George T. Winston.
George Winston
Born 1949
Michigan, U.S.
Genre(s) Contemporary Instrumental
Instrument(s) Piano
Solo acoustic guitar
Solo harmonica
Years active 1972–present
Label(s) Takoma Records
Windham Hill Records
Dancing Cat Records
Website GeorgeWinston.com

George Winston (born 1949) is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Eastern Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California. When growing up his interest in music was listening to instrumentals in the R&B, rock, pop, and jazz genres, especially by organists. When he heard The Doors in 1967 he was inspired to start playing the organ. In 1971 he switched to solo piano after hearing recordings from the 1920s and the 1930s of the great stride pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller, and soon after of Waller’s contemporaries Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, and Donald Lambert. Many of Winston’s melodic pieces are self-described as "rural folk piano" or "folk piano", which is a style he came up with in 1971 to have an approach to compliment the uptempo stride piano. These melodic pieces evoke the essence of a season and reflect natural landscapes. The third style he plays, and is currently working on the most, is New Orleans R&B piano, influenced mainly by Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Henry Butler, as well as Dr. John and Jon Cleary.

He also is known for his tribute album of the late jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi's compositions for the Peanuts animated films.

Contents

[edit] Background

George Winston was first recorded by John Fahey for Fahey's Takoma Records. The album Ballads and Blues disappeared without much notice though it was later reissued on Winston’s Dancing Cat Records). However, in 1979, William Ackerman talked with Winston about having Winston record for Ackerman's new record label, Windham Hill Records. At first George Winston played some guitar pieces he liked and then he played some of his nighttime music on the piano which became the basis for the record Autumn, which Ackerman produced. Autumn soon became the best-selling record in the Windham Hill catalog[citation needed] and his albums December and Winter into Spring both went platinum (million-plus sales in the United States). He has recorded 7 more solo piano albums (see discography below), and he is one of the best known performers playing contemporary instrumental music.


Winston was 16 when Charles Schulz's A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered in 1965 and he ran out and bought the soundtrack the next day.[citation needed] and eagerly awaited each new Peanuts special to hear Vince Guaraldi's newest music. In 1996, Winston released Linus and Lucy - The Music of Vince Guaraldi. Much of the album is devoted to the theme music Guaraldi wrote for the animated Peanuts cartoons - 15 TV specials and a film from 1965 until Guaraldi’s death in 1976. "I love his melodies and his chord progressions," Winston said of Guaraldi. "He has a really personal way of doing voicings." [1]

Winston's 2002 album Night Divides the Day - The Music of the Doors takes the music of the 1960s band The Doors and turns it into solo piano. The title of Winston's album is a lyric from "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", the first track of the Doors' self-titled first album.

His next album will be titled Love Will Come - The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2, a follow-up to his 1996 tribute album to the same artist. It was set to be released between late 2008 and early 2009.[2]

[edit] Concerts

Winston dresses unassumingly for his shows, playing in stocking feet, stating that it quiets his "hard beat pounding" left foot.[3] For years, the balding, bearded Winston would walk out on stage in a flannel shirt and jeans, and the audience would think he was a technician, coming to tune the 9-foot Steinways that are his piano of choice.[4] As The Boston Globe reported in 1996, “Much of his playing is introspective, mood-setting and, frequently, tranquilizing. Casting my gaze about the auditorium, I observed members of the audience with their attention fixed upon the pianist and others absorbing the music with eyes closed. Winston is not a self-indulgent performer who protracts his renditions to the point where he dangerously tiptoes between a yawn and a snore. Instead, he keeps his presentations pithy and free of excess and his audience awake.”[5]

[edit] Career

Outside of his own piano compositions, adaptations of other people’s songs, and performances, he plays blues solo harmonica (mainly Appalachian fiddle tunes) and solo acoustic guitar (mainly Appalachian fiddle tunes, and Hawaiian slack-key guitar). While he mainly plays these instruments in concert and not on recordings, both his harmonica and guitar playing can be heard on his benefit album Remembrance - A Memorial Benefit, which was released shortly after 9/11. In 2006, he recorded another benefit album Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit, and a second hurricane relief benefit album is planned.

Winston also produces recordings of Hawaiian slack-key guitarists for his own record label, Dancing Cat Records, including artists Keola Beamer, Sonny Chillingworth, Leonard Kwan, Ray Kane, Cyril Pahinui, Led Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, Bla Pahinui, Martin Pahinui, George Kahumoku, Moses Kahumoku, George Kuo, Ozzie Kotani, and others. He is also working on recording several old-time musicians, including the venerable harmonica player/ folksinger Sam Hinton, harmonica player Rick Epping, and multi-instrumentalist Curt Bouterse.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Soundtracks

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maples, Tina (November 20, 1996). "Music Just Happens To Winston". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  2. ^ Recent Projects at George Winston official website
  3. ^ Dave Whitnack Tour Manager 1996 to 2006
  4. ^ Dee, Lyons (January 24, 1986). "George Winston: Playing It Low-Key At TCCC". The Dallas Morning News. 
  5. ^ Santosuosso, Ernie (December 9, 1986). "Rich, Relaxing Evening With George Winston". Boston Globe. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Winston"
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