George Winston's piano prowess will be on display at GPAC
12/12/08
George Winston's piano prowess will be on display at GPAC
By Mark Jordan / Special to The Commercial Appeal
Friday, December 12, 2008
Pianist George Winston is best known to many for his series of seasonally themed solo piano recordings. The Santa Cruz, Calif., native has been a leading light of the New Age music movement, beginning with his 1980 sophomore breakthrough Autumn, an album of airy, rambling keyboard meditations that set a mellow tone for the career that followed.
But casual listeners may be surprised at the depth and breadth of musical experience that underpins Winston's modestly self-styled "rural folk piano." This is an artist who spends his off time learning Appalachian fiddle tunes on harmonica; who recorded an entire album of solo piano versions of songs by the '60s rock band The Doors; and who, to this day, counts himself a serious student of New Orleans R&B piano and Hawaiian slack-key guitar.
It is a testament to Winston's vision as an artist that all these influences run through his internal filter and come out sounding uniquely Winston.
"I don't think you have any choice," Winston says from a tour stop in Connecticut. "I've certainly tried to sound like other people, but you just don't have their fingers and their hands and their muscles. And they can't sound like you, either."
The many sides of Winston will be on showcase when he appears at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre tonight. His "winter show," made up of songs he feels reflect the mood of the season, will likely include works from his hit albums Autumn and December, as well as selections from his most recent record, 2006's Golf Coast Blues & Impressions, and his popular takes on the music of Vince Guaraldi.
"He is by far the composer I play the most tunes of," says Winston of Guaraldi, the late San Francisco jazz pianist known for composing much of the music for the popular "Peanuts" series of television specials.
Winston has recorded one album of Guaraldi music, Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi, and is currently working on another for release in 2009.
"I just love his songs," says Winston. "I don't play much like him. He's a jazz player, and I have more of an R&B sensibility. But the songs really speak to me."
Raised in Montana and Jackson, Miss., Winston was a latecomer to music. He was 18 when he was inspired to take up the organ by the music of The Doors. A few years later he discovered Fats Waller and switched to piano.
The connection between Winston and Waller, the larger-than-life early jazz virtuoso, may not seem obvious, aside from the stray stride-piano rhythm that works its way into Winston's playing. But the biggest impact Waller had on the young musician was Winston's realization that he didn't need to play in a band setting, that he could make a go as a solo pianist.
"I just hadn't seen anybody play live by themselves," he says. "I didn't know you could do that. Then when I heard Fats Waller's recordings from the '30s, I went, 'Oh, that's what I want to do.'"
The appeal of playing alone doesn't arise from misanthropy. Quite the opposite, Winston is famously friendly and generous. He recorded benefit albums in the aftermaths of 9-11 (Remembrance: A Memorial Benefit) and Hurricane Katrina (Golf Coast Blues & Impressions). And as he does on many of his tours, he is inviting concertgoers to bring a donation to the local food bank to tonight's show. The organization will also receive a portion of the proceeds from CDs sold at the concert.
Rather, Winston's solitary performance habits are born out of the way he experiences music.
"I don't like playing with people," he says. "That's just not how I hear music in my head. I never was able very well to listen to someone else while I was playing. It's kind of like you're both talking at the same time."
George Winston
8 tonight at Germantown Performing Arts Centre, 1801 Exeter. Tickets are $40, $50 and $60 at the GPAC box office. Call (901) 751-7500, or go to gpacweb.com.
