🎹🌟 Muso Alert! George Winston: More than a New Age Pianist, Bids Adieu at 73 🙏💔
TL:DR; Musical virtuoso George Winston, famous for his influential solo piano works, has signed off at 73 after a tenacious fight with cancer. Winston was the maestro behind 16 grand solo piano albums and, as if that wasn’t enough, had a Grammy stashed up his sleeve. He also rocked the music scene with some killer Hawaiian slack key guitar records, because why not? 🎸🏝️ Despite serious health setbacks, Winston continued creating music and performing until recently. Remember, folks, this man despised the ‘New Age’ label, choosing ‘Folk Piano’ or ‘Rural Folk Piano’ as a better fit for his tunes. The question is, did his music truly transcend labels? 🤔🎶
George Winston, whose hands danced on the piano creating some of the most defining tunes of our time, has left us at the age of 73. His body may have lost the battle against cancer, but his musical legacy continues to serenade the world, much like the ‘Forest’, his Grammy-winning album of 1994. 🌳🎹
Born in 1949 in Michigan, Winston lived an adventurous childhood, hopping from Montana to Mississippi and Florida. Who knew that this kid, who grew up influenced by the magical tunes of New Orleans pianists like James Booker and Henry Butler, would himself become an influential force in the world of music? 🚀🎼
After releasing his first solo album ‘Piano Solos’ under John Fahey’s Takoma label, Winston had a blockbuster run with Windham Hill label with three platinum albums – ‘Autumn’, ‘Winter Into Spring’, and ‘December’. What’s the secret sauce to his music, you ask? Well, he’d say it was the changing seasons, the ever-evolving topographies, and the humble inspirations of the countryside. 👨🌾🍂❄️🌱
Later in his career, he dabbled more in tributes rather than original compositions, treating his fans to renditions of tunes by the likes of Vincent Guaraldi and the Doors. Remember his ‘Night Divides the Day’ album? Yep, that’s a tribute to the Doors. And his final release ‘Night’ included songs popularized by Leonard Cohen and Laura Nyro among others. Could Winston’s music be the ultimate form of flattery? 🌚🎶
It’s not just the music world Winston touched. He also had a soft spot for those less fortunate, urging concert-goers to bring food donations and contributing a chunk of his show proceeds to local food banks. He even donated proceeds from his 2001 album ‘Remembrance’ to the families of the 9/11 victims. 💖🍞
Yet, despite his monumental contributions to music and society, Winston was a humble man who shied away from labels, especially the ‘New Age’ tag that critics so readily attached to his music. He preferred to see his music as ‘Folk Piano’ or ‘Rural Folk Piano’. You see, he was more interested in mastering the melodies than getting tangled up in philosophical or spiritual debates. Simple, ain’t it? 🎵🚜
And now, as we say goodbye to this maestro, we wonder whether Winston’s music truly was too vast and diverse to be contained by a label. 🎹🌌
So, what do you think? Does the ‘New Age’ tag do justice to Winston’s diverse body
