The Five Best George Winston CDs

George Winston in Original Echoes Living Room

George Winston Then & Now

George Winston is both loved and reviled. 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.  Praised with five and four star reviews from Downbeat and Rolling Stone for his debut album,  Autumn,  in 1980, he’s since come to be synonymous with shlock for many critics.  But those critics are missing the point.   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 first Windham Hill album, Autumn.  It launched a million solo pianists, yet none of them has attained George Winston’s almost transcendent marriage of melody and atmosphere.

Winston is an eclectic artists who cites The Doors and Tangerine Dream, Fats Waller and John Coltrane,  Philip Aaberg and  Steve Reich as influences.  He occasionally goes off and pays tribute to these artists, doing entire albums of Vince Guaraldi compositions, for instance.  With one exception, he’s less successful playing their music, which often reveals his own limitations as a pianist.  Nothing wrong with limitations, everyone’s got them.  But when he plays inside those limitations, George Winston moves outside the box.
As part of Echoes Then & Now series in our 20th Anniversary celebration, we’re featuring the music of George Winston.  You can hear his show tonight, August 14.  All of Winston’s albums have been reissued in recent years with bonus tracks and illuminating liner notes from the artist.

FIVE BEST GEORGE WINSTON CDS.

1 Forest
Forest is the CD that brought me into the Winston fold.  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.  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.

2 Autumn
This is the album that started it all, although it’s techically his second album, it was his first on Windham Hill Records.  The opening “Colors/Dance” rings with the open clarity of the Montana plains where Winston grew up.  “Woods,” with its quasi-classical arpeggios, seems to dance in the air.  And so it goes throughout Autumn as the pianist unfolds his melodies in what sounds like spontaneous reverie.

3 Night Divides the Day-The Music of the Doors
I think this may be the least well-received Winston album by his fans, but I thought there were a couple tracks on here that attained true interpretive brilliance and revealed the depth and breadth of George Winston’s vision.  he reimagined   “My Wild Love” from a drunken stomp into a zen piano koan and his take on “Bird of Prey,” based on a Jim Morrison poem aspires to the imagery Morrison wrote.  His shimmering rendition of “Crystal Ship” is magical and serene.   One of the thrills of Echoes was the Living room concert that The Doors’ Ray Manzarek and George Winston played together, facing each other on twin grand pianos.

4 Winter Into Spring
Never a florid player, Winston’s best music emerges from those spaces where the melody finds its own refractions, unimpeded by the pointless ornamentation and quasi-classical flourishes that tarnish so many pianists who followed in his wake.  song.    Winter Into Spring was Winston’s second album for Windham Hill Records and following up on the themes of Autum, it continues down the seasonal road and includes several of Winston’s signature compositions including “January Stars” and the extended ruminations of “Rain.”

5 December
December is a Christmas album that transcends the season.  Mixing traditional carols, a couple of classical works and his own originals, Winston takes you into winter from the cover photo of a snow blanketed field to his final invocation, “Peace.”  Winston’s piano drops notes with icy clarity into a winter silence, rippling through “Carol of Bells” and coaxing dark introspective moods from his own suite, “Night,” which includes Winston playing inside the piano like a harp. Who would’ve thought that the gentle melodies of “Peace” were inspired by the soundtrack to TV’s The Outer Limits?

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000NKL/echoes

B00005NNDO december

George Winston is both loved and reviled. His impressionistic solo piano albums have come to define the Windham Hill sound and he’s among the first musician most people think of when you say, New Age.  Praised with five and four star reviews from Downbeat and Rolling Stone upon his debut album Autumn in 1980, he’s since come to be synonymous with shlock for many critics.
But George Winston, despite his continued popularity, is still an underrated pianist.  He took the lyricism and mood that made Keith Jarrett’s music so popular and refined them into what he called “folk piano” on his first Windham Hill album, Autumn.  It launched a million solo pianists, yet none of them has attained George Winston’s almost transcendent marriage of melody and atmosphere.
Winston is an eclectic artists who cite’s The Doors and Tangerine Dream, Fats Waller and Phillip Aaberg, Steve Reich and Alex De Grassi as influences.  He often goes off and pays tribute to these artists, doing entire albums of Vince Guaraldi compositions.  With one exception, he’s less successful there playing music that often reveals his own limitations as a pianist.  Nothing wrong with limitations, everyone’s got them.  But when he plays inside those limitations, George Winston moves outside the box.
As part of Echoes Then & Now series in our 20th Anniversary celebration, we’re featuring the music of George Winston.  You can hear his show tonite, August 14.  All of Winston’s albums have been reissued in recent years with Bonus tracks and illuminating liner notes from the artist.

Five Best George Winston CDs

GEORGE WINSTON
Forest
Forest is the CD that brought me into the Winston fold.  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.  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.

Autumn
This is the album that started it all, although it’s techically his second album, it was his first on Windham Hill Records.  The opening “Colors/Dance” rings with the open clarity of the Montana plains where Winston grew up.  “Woods,” with its quasi-classical arpeggios, seems to dance in the air.  And so it goes throughout Autumn as the pianist unfolds his melodies in what sounds like spontaneous reverie.

Night Divides the Day-The Music of the Doors
I think this may be the least well-received Winston albums by his fans, but I thought there were a couple tracks on here that attained true interpretive brilliance and revealed the depth and breadth of George Winston’s vision.  His interpretation of My Wild Love as a zen piano koan is brilliant and his take on Bird of Prey, based on a Jim Morrison poem aspires to the imagery Morrison wrote.  And you can beat his shimmering rendition of “Crystal Ship.”  One of the thrills of Echoes was the Living room concert that Ray Manzarek and George Winston played together, facing each other on twin grand pianos.

WINTER INTO SPRING
Never a florid player, Winston’s best music emerges from those spaces where the melody finds its own refractions, unimpeded by the pointless ornamentation and quasi-classical flourishes that tarnish so many pianists who followed in his wake.  song.    WINTER INTO SPRING was Winston’s second album for Windham Hill Records and following up on the themes of AUTUMN, it continues down the seasonal road and includes several of Winston’s signature compositions including”January Stars” and the extended ruminations of “Rain.”

December
December is a Christmas album that transcends the season.  Mixing traditional carols, a couple of classical works and his own originals, Winston takes you into winter from the cover photo of a snow blanketed field to his final invocation, “Peace.”  Winston’s piano drops notes with icy clarity into a winter silence, rippling through “Carol of Bells” and coaxing dark introspective moods from his own suite, “Night,” which includes Winston playing inside the piano like a harp. Who would’ve thought that the gentle melodies of “Peace” were inspired by the soundtrack to TV’s The Outer Limits?

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

Ludovico Einaudi-New Age Fodder or Classical Elegance

Ludovico Einaudi is in the midst of a short US tour. Echoes and WFUV will be presenting him in concert in New York City on Tuesday November 25^th.  (Concert Info)

He just played Los Angeles in Largo at the Coronet Theater and two reviews from that show point up the dichotomies in Einaudi’s music. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Josef Woodard, a fine jazz journalist, had trouble wrapping himself around Einaudi’s heroic cadences, minor key ruminations and haunting melodic trances. He went so far as to cast out the dreaded “New Age” tag, critical code for “lite-weight shit.”  He added a final insult:

Classical music fans might wonder whether Einaudi’s popularity could lead new listeners in the direction of the real thing

You’d think that Woodard, a veteran of the fusion wars, would recall that critics used that same invective: maybe fans of fusion would be led to “real” jazz.

Phil Gallo,  writing about the same concert for Variety,  had a different perspective, dialing directly into the charm of Einaudi’s sound. He asserts that:

His points of reference are not all that different than those of Radiohead or Sigur Ros. This is ultimately pop music he is performing and at times his chord changes and timbral decisions echo the work of Christopher O’Riley, the classical pianist who has tackled the work of Radiohead, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake from a solo piano perspective.

Ludovico Einaudi in Echoes Living Room Concert

Gallo pointed out the minimalist connections and Einaudi’s ability to “tell a story”  while also extolling Einaudi’s cinematic expanse, something which Woodard uses it as a criticism. I think ultimately, Woodard is looking for something in the music that isn’t there.  I do hear where Woodard is coming from, but that’s like asking Charles Lloyd or Keith Jarrett to rock out.   He wants flights of improvisation and technical expertise, but Einaudi is more concerned with form, mood, and melodic invention.

When I sat with Einaudi for an Echoes Living Room Concert,  I barely missed the strings and electronics that make recordings like Divenire so captivating. Even on his own, he unfolds a magical world as stories are revealed and scenery shifts. I hear in his playing echoes of Michael Nyman’s The Piano score and George Winston at his best.  If you haven’t checked out this musician, here’s an Echo Location featuring his music.

Ludovico Einaudi has a few more U.S. concerts.  He’s be playing two dates in Boston November 22 and 23 and one presented by Echoes and WFUV in New York at The Concert Hall on November 25. (Concert Info)

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))