![]() Mike Mettler: If someone unfamiliar with your work on vinyl wants to find out what George Winston music is all about, what album of yours should they put the needle down on first, and why? Herewith, Winston and I discuss how he first came up with that folk piano playing style, how The Doors became one of his major influences in addition to his favorite New Orleans jazz players, and the key differences between what his left and right hands were charged with doing on the piano. ![]() The balance of that interview has never been posted or published anywhere - until now, that is. The pianist’s final LP, Night, was released on vinyl via RCA/Dancing Cat in May 2022, and it’s a fitting cap on a truly admirable career that features a score of stunning tracks like the haunting cover of Leonard Cohen’s perennially affecting “Hallelujah” and literal time-of-day period-piece Winston originals like “At Midnight” and “Dawn.”ĭuring April 2017, Winston and I conducted the aforementioned 65-minute phone interview that was initially intended mainly to discuss his then-new RCA album titled Spring Carousel - at present, a CD/digital-only album that needs to be released on vinyl, STAT! - but, inevitably, we wound up speaking quite at length about his detailed recording techniques and related analog proclivities. Thankfully, Winston’s own special way enabled our collective ears to enjoy 50-plus years of great-sounding recordings and live performances alike. I could hear a scratchy thing on a voicemail or something on a great stereo or in a studio room and I’m still thinking, ‘Well, there’s an E flat sharp.’ Other than with Jim Morrison, I can’t ever remember listening to the lyric of a song because I’m always listening to the chords, and I’m listening to the notes. “Wherever he wants the mikes, wherever he wants to record, and wherever he wants the piano to be - I leave all of that up to him. “I leave a lot of the recording-related decisions up to my engineer, Howard Johnston,” he confirmed. he outlined to me in a phone interview we conducted together back in April 2017. Winston also had an ear for what made for both high-quality performances and stellar playback on vinyl, an overall SQ M.O. Many of these intimate, RTI-pressed, one-man solo acoustic piano LPs went platinum, and they essentially put the burgeoning Windham Hill Records label on the map. For his part, Winston begat an instrumental artform initially known as “folk piano,” best exemplified by seasonally flavored LPs like 1980’s Autumn, 1982’s December, and 1982’s Winter Into Spring. Photo courtesy Winston’s official site.Īfter a decade-long battle with cancer, pioneering pianist/instrumentalist extraordinaire George Winston sadly passed away at age 73 on June 4, 2023. Autumn Leaves Us: Above, the late, great George Winston, doing what he did best.
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