George Winston

Self-described as a “rural folk piano” performer, George Winston ranked among the first and most commercially triumphant advocates of the instrumental style that later acquired the label new age. His evocative solo-piano discs generated a succession of platinum- and gold-certified releases throughout the 1980s and 1990s—Autumn, Winter into Spring, December, Plains, and Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi—while further wide-ranging projects issued after 2000, among them Night Divides the Day: The Music of the Doors (2002), Love Will Come: The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2 (2010), Restless Wind (2019), and Night (2022), continued to demonstrate his command of tone, texture, and atmosphere.

Although Michigan-born in 1949, Winston grew up chiefly in Montana, where the pronounced seasonal contrasts left a lasting imprint on the pastoral character of his work. Even in childhood he gravitated toward instrumental rather than vocal music, citing early touchstones Booker T. & the MG’s, Floyd Cramer, and the Ventures; yet he waited until after high school to begin playing, first on organ and electric piano before shifting to acoustic piano in 1971. Drawing from the stride approach of Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, he moved away from rock and R&B toward jazz and soon issued his debut solo-piano recording, Ballads and Blues 1972, before withdrawing from music for several years.

An encounter in 1979 with the music of New Orleans R&B pianist Professor Longhair supplied the spark that prompted Winston’s return to performance. Signed to Windham Hill, he produced a trio of seasonally themed, impressionistic albums between 1980 and 1982—Autumn, December, and Winter into Spring—that helped establish the foundation for the subsequent new-age surge. Popularity and influence continued to mount, yet Winston again receded from view for much of the later 1980s, surfacing only in 1986 to provide the score for actress Meryl Streep’s reading of The Velveteen Rabbit.

In 1991 he completed the seasonal cycle with Summer; Forest appeared three years afterward. Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi, released in 1996, honored another central influence, while the 1998 compilation All the Seasons of George Winston and the following year’s Plains kept his catalog active. Anniversary editions of Autumn, December, and Winter into Spring accompanied the 2001 release Remembrance: A Memorial Benefit, Winston’s direct response to the events of September 11, 2001. Night Divides the Day (2002) concentrated on the music of the Doors, one of his earliest touchstones, and Montana: A Love Story (2004) drew from memories of his Montana upbringing. Issued by RCA in 2006, Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions served as a benefit collection for hurricane relief.

Winston maintained a solo performance schedule but waited until 2010 to release another studio album, Love Will Come: The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2. Touring behind the record, he presented solo-piano programs as well as selections on slack-key guitar and harmonica. Deeply affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and its impact on southern Louisiana wetlands, he issued Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions, Vol. 2: A Louisiana Wetlands Benefit in March 2012 to support Tab Benoit’s Voice of the Wetlands organization and related environmental initiatives. In 2015 Winston underwent a bone-marrow transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome; two years later he issued the cancer-research benefit album The Spring Carousel.

Restless Wind, released in 2019, featured interpretations of songs by Sam Cooke and Stephen Stills; the album entered the Billboard New Age chart at number one and the Billboard Jazz chart at number two. Winston’s sixteenth solo-piano album, Night (2022), combined original nocturnal pieces with renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion.” Also in 2022 came three thematic anthologies drawn from his catalog—Solo Piano Pieces for Autumn, Solo Piano Pieces for Spring, and Solo Piano Pieces for Summer. These proved to be the final albums issued during his lifetime; Winston died on June 4, 2023, at the age of 73.