Grammy award-winning pianist will play at the Granada
By Russ Morgan (Contact)
Friday, October 16, 2009
Drawing inspiration from his travels and the venues he plays, Grammy award-winning pianist George Winston will be in for a treat — and so will his audience — when he plays at the Granada Theatre on Oct. 25.
Winston has a packed schedule, playing more than 110 shows a year, he said. He is a charitable performer, too, asking his audiences to bring canned goods to give to food banks at his shows. His latest album, “Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions,” was released in 2006, shortly after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Proceeds from that album have gone to help the people and communities devastated by that storm.
Though he grew up in eastern Montana, Winston has a connection to New Orleans through some of its most influential pianists, including Professor Longhair, a founder of the New Orleans R&B piano scene in the late 1940s. Other inspirations for Winston include Henry Butler, James Booker, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint and Jon Cleary.
“The music, the culture in general completely affect the way I play everything one way or another,” Winston said. “Consciously and subconsciously.”
Winston’s piano compositions follow three distinct styles, including New Orleans R&B. The others are the stride piano style of Fats Waller and a melodic folk style Winston developed in the 1970s.
“The folk style is melodic, usually ballads,” Winston said. “Simple melodic ballads, like folk songs, not too complicated.”
Changing seasons have figured heavily into much of Winston’s work. Several of his albums have been inspired by seasons, including “Autumn,” “Winter into Spring,” “December” and “Summer.”
“Growing up in eastern Montana, the seasons were very distinct from each other,” he said. “Living that way, I just thought of everything in terms of seasons, including songs I liked, songs I eventually put together.”
His second biggest inspiration is topography, and the journey he follows as he travels from venue to venue.
“The music flows all the time, just going to different areas and playing for different audiences,” he said. “People in the audiences absolutely contribute. And the journey, the drive to the place, it all enters in and affects the music, sometimes directly, sometimes more indirectly.”
Aside from a few lessons to learn chord structure and music theory, Winston is largely self-taught.
“Basically, when I hear something I like I learn what it is and make it part of my vocabulary,” he said. “If I hear a lick I particularly like, I’ve gotta learn it.”
Before he played piano, Winston started playing the organ after hearing the Doors for the first time.
“I was an avid listener to things with organ in them, and when I heard the Doors I said, ‘OK, this is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard,’” he said. “I can’t just listen. I’ve got to play now.”
After about five years, Winston said, he started listening to Fats Waller’s stride piano recordings from the 1920s and 1930s and switched to solo piano.
In all of his performances, Winston hopes his audiences take away all that they can from the experience.
“I just try to play the songs the best I can,” he said, “and what will be, will be.”
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