George winston winter into spring11/27/2023 This is the album that started it all, although it’s technically his second album, it was his first on Windham Hill Records. But whether playing the challenging inside-the-piano effects of his “Forbidden Forest” or the inviting themes of “Cloudy This Morning,” George Winston’s gifted lyricism remains true. I liked his earlier albums, but on Forest, George Winston went deeper, extending his ringing, open-air, melodic sound, embracing the minimalist influences of Steve Reich on “Tamarack Pines,” the jazz harmonies of the late-organist Larry Young‘s “The Cradle” and the slow ragtime of William Bolcom‘s “Graceful Ghost. He’s made several wonderful recordings since then, but looking back, I would still stick with my original five which spans from 1980 to 2002.įorestis the CD that brought me into the Winston fold. But when he plays inside those limitations, George Winston moves outside the box.ġ2 years ago, I put together a list of the Five Best George Winston albums. With one exception, he’s less successful playing their music, which often reveals his own limitations as a pianist. He occasionally goes off and pays tribute to these artists, doing entire albums of Vince Guaraldicompositions, for instance. ![]() Winston is an eclectic artist who cites The Doors and Tangerine Dream, Fats Waller and John Coltrane, Philip Aaberg and Steve Reich as influences. Winston took the lyricism and mood that made Keith Jarrett‘s music so popular and refined them into what he called “folk piano” on his that first Windham Hill album. It launched a million solo pianists, yet none of them has attained George Winston’s almost transcendent marriage of melody and atmosphere. Praised with five and four star reviews from Downbeat and Rolling Stone for his Windham Hill debut album, Autumn, in 1980, he’s since come to be synonymous with shlock for many critics. His impressionistic solo piano albums came to define the Windham Hill sound and he’s among the first musicians most people think of when you say, New Age, much to his chagrin. ![]() George Winston is the 30th of 30 Icons of Echoes.
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