George Winston's main influences on the piano have been Thomas "Fats" Waller, Teddy Wilson, Professor Longhair, Henry Butler and especially the late James Booker (none of George's current recordings are in the R&B or Stride styles, they are in his own rural folk piano style). He is now studying the masters of the Hawaiian slack key guitar tradition, as well as recording them for Dancing Cat Records.
 |
|
Biography
George Winston was born in 1949 and grew up mainly in Montana, splitting the rest of his formative years between Mississippi and Florida. These years were spent listening mostly to pop instrumental groups such as The Ventures, Floyd Cramer, Booker T and the MG’s, King Curtis, Lonnie Mack, Link Wray, The Chantays ("Pipeline"), B Bumble and the Stingers ("Nut Rocker"), Kokomo ("Asia Minor"), Jorgen Ingmann ("Apache"), Bill Black, the Champs, Willie Mitchell, Junior Walker, Dave "Baby" Cortez, Bill Justis, Duane Eddy, The Tijuana Brass, as well as many R&B artists such as Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and Sam Cooke. He would listen to the radio faithfully for the 30 seconds before the hourly news when they would play instrumentals.
Inspired by blues, rock, R&B
and jazz, George began playing after high school in 1967 and
started on organ and electric piano. In 
1971, after hearing records of the
legendary stride (swing) pianists Thomas "Fats" Waller
and Teddy Wilson, George switched to the acoustic piano. At that
time, he began working on his own brand of pop instrumental music
on solo piano, putting together songs of his own and arranging
other pieces.
The piano music George is currently working on is about two-thirds R&B/Standards, and one-third melodic music. The latter comprises most of his recorded output, and is in a genre described as rural folk piano. For the most part, George has chosen to record albums with specific themes. In 1972 he recorded his first solo piano album, BALLADS & BLUES - 1972.
In 1979, he became greatly inspired by the late New Orleans pianist and R&B founder, Professor Longhair, especially the 1949 track "Hey Now Baby" from the Atlantic album NEW ORLEANS PIANO, which contains reissued sides from 1949 and 1953. Also very inspiring was Professor Longhair’s 1974 French LP, ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GUMBO (reissued on Dancing Cat Records).
Since 1980, George has released five solo piano albums: AUTUMN (1980), WINTER INTO SPRING (1982), DECEMBER (1982), SUMMER (1991), and FOREST (1994 - Grammy Award winner, 1995). George has also done the solo piano soundtrack for the production of the children’s story, THE VELVETEEN RABBIT (1984), and for the "Peanuts" animation, THIS IS AMERICA, CHARLIE BROWN- THE BIRTH OF THE CONSTITUTION (1988), and recently, the solo guitar soundtrack for SADAKO AND THE THOUSAND PAPER CRANES (1995). His latest solo piano album, LINUS AND LUCY - THE MUSIC OF VINCE GUARALDI, released September 1996, features compositions by the late jazz pianist, including "Cast Your Fate To The Wind," "Peanuts" pieces, among others.
With his great love of instrumental music, it was inevitable that George would be drawn to the work of Vince Guaraldi. Like many people, George first heard Guaraldi when "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" became a rare, jazz hit single in 1962. The song, which won a Grammy Award for "Best Original Jazz Composition," led to Guaraldi scoring the first TV special based on the "Peanuts" comic strip, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
George remembers buying the soundtrack the day after he saw the show and collecting all of Guaraldi’s records after that. Later, when he started playing piano, he would look forward to each special to hear what new Guaraldi tunes he could learn. In 1988, one of George’s dreams came true when he was asked to do the music for the Peanuts special, THIS IS AMERICA, CHARLIE BROWN: THE BIRTH OF THE CONSTITUTION in which he played a lot of Vince Guaraldi’s music including "Cast Your Fate." Today, he plays more of Guaraldi’s songs than those of any other composer.
"Vince Guaraldi once said
that he wanted to write standards, not just hits," Winston
says, explaining his interest. "He did just that. His music
is very much a part of the fabric of American culture, but not
many people know the man behind the
music. Play one
of the "Peanuts" pieces for most kids, and they will
usually say right away, ‘That’s Charlie Brown music.’"
George says he has the same reaction. Since so much of Guaraldi’s music is seasonal, it reminds George of his childhood in Montana. The music, says Geroge, generates joy, warmth, humor and childhood memories. On LINUS & LUCY - THE MUSIC OF VINCE GUARALDI, George offers his own interpretations of a wide variety of Guaraldi’s music from the "Peanuts" TV specials he scored, plus "Cast Your Fate To The Wind," its 1963 follow-up single, "Treat Street," and other pieces.
Recalling a meeting with Guaraldi in 1971 at a jazz club in Palo Alto, George says: "He was very gracious and encouraging when I occasionally had the opportunity to play intermission piano between his sets. Vince’s music continues to delight millions of people around the world, but not many people know the man behind the music. I do what I can to help keep his musical legacy alive."
To coincide with his George Winston's new album LINUS & LUCY-THE MUSIC OF VINCE GUARALDI, Windham Hill has released a 7-CD box set entitled COMPLETE SOLO PIANO RECORDINGS 1972-1996. This highly anticipated box set contains all 7 of George's previously released solo piano albums in an elegantly designed cloth box. PLUS a special limited edition collector's booklet with liner notes authored by George Winston.
George is also working on solo guitar, studying the playing of the masters of Hawaiian slack key guitar, as well as recording them as part of an extensive ongoing series for Dancing Cat Records. He has so far produced 18 slack key albums. Slack key is the name for the beautiful solo fingerpicked guitar tradition unique to Hawaii. This tradition began in the early 1800s and predated the better-known steel guitar by half a century.