George Otis Winston III (February 11, 1949 – June 4, 2023) was an American pianist performing contemporary instrumental music. Winston received four other Grammy nominations, including one for Best Children's Music Album, performed with actress Meryl Streep, and another for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his interpretation of works by the rock band the Doors.
Winston played in three styles: the melodic approach that he developed and called "rural folk piano"; stride piano, primarily inspired by Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson; and his primary interest, New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B) piano, influenced by James Booker, Professor Longhair and Henry Butler. While the majority of his recordings were in the folk piano style, Winston mostly enjoyed playing R&B piano. He was raised mainly in Montana (Miles City and Billings), as well as Mississippi and Florida. As a youth, his musical interests included instrumentals of the R&B, rock, pop and jazz genres, especially those by organists. and watched each new Peanuts special to hear Guaraldi's newest music. After hearing the Doors in 1967, he was inspired to play the organ. In 1971, he switched to solo piano after hearing the stride pianists Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson and later Earl Hines, Donald Lambert and Cleo Brown.
After graduating from Coral Gables Senior High School in Coral Gables, Florida in 1967, Winston attended Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he majored in sociology. While he did not complete his undergraduate degree, following his rise to prominence, the university awarded him an honorary doctor of arts degree. In 1979, Winston sent a demo tape to William Ackerman, who had started his new record label, Windham Hill, in 1976. Ackerman offered to produce his next album, which became Autumn; it was soon the best-selling record in the label's catalog.
On the heels of his three successful albums, Winston composed the score to accompany Meryl Streep's narration on The Velveteen Rabbit in 1984, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Children's Music Album. Two of his other works, Plains (1999) and Montana: A Love Story (2004), were also later nominated for best new age album.
Winston's 2002 album Night Divides the Day – The Music of the Doors consists of solo piano renditions of music by the rock band the Doors. The title of the album is a lyric from the band's song "Break on Through (To the Other Side)". The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Winston suffered from a number of illnesses, and while recuperating from a bout of cancer in 2013, he played the piano in the medical center auditorium, creating 21 pieces, that he says were "kind of circular" and "minimalist". In 2014, he included three of the pieces in a Spring Carousel EP, and a 15-track album, called Spring Carousel: A Cancer Research Benefit released on March 31. Proceeds benefit City of Hope Hospital near Los Angeles, where he was treated and subsequently composed the musical work. To kick off the release, Winston performed a concert at Pittsburgh's Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall that benefited the Creative Arts Program, which provides scholarships to pay for music therapy.
In July 2019, at the National Music Council's 2019 American Eagle Award Honor ceremony that recognized Vince Guaraldi, Winston performed his versions of the musician's work. From his grand piano, Winston told the audience:
In 1983, Winston started his own label, Dancing Cat Records, He primarily launched the label to record artists playing the Hawaiian slack-key guitar, which he admired. He provided the guitar soundtrack to Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in 1995. Both his harmonica and guitar playing can be heard on his benefit album Remembrance: A Memorial Benefit, which was released shortly after the September 11 attacks.
Winston's Dancing Cat Records produced recordings of slack-key guitarists, including artists Keola Beamer, Sonny Chillingworth, Leonard Kwan, Dennis Kamakahi, Ray Kane, Cyril Pahinui, Bla Pahinui, Martin Pahinui, Ledward Kaapana, Georg Kuo, Ozzie Kotani, George Kahumoku Jr., Moses Kahumoku, Cindy Combs and others. He also worked on recording the American traditional musicians Sam Hinton, Rick Epping and Curt Bouterse. The third style he played was New Orleans R&B piano, influenced mainly by James Booker, Professor Longhair, Henry Butler, as well as Dr. John and Jon Cleary. He had been called the "Father of New Age" because his album Autumn was released by Windham Hill Records often described as a new age label; Winston himself denied that his music was new age.
Winston dressed unassumingly for his shows, playing in stocking feet, stating that it quieted his "hard beat pounding" left foot. For years, the balding, bearded Winston would walk out on stage in a flannel shirt and jeans, and the audience would think he was a technician, coming to tune the nine-foot New York Steinways that are his piano of choice. According to the Austin American Statesman in 2015: "As for his piano playing, Winston remains a master of both tone and invention. Starting with a bluesy tune inspired by Professor Longhair—Winston's most recent albums have included two Gulf Coast-inspired collections—he proceeded through seasonal favorites "Rain" (from 1982's Winter Into Spring) and "Woods" (from 1980s Autumn). On the latter, he created remarkable 'hollowed' sounds to some notes by reaching inside the piano and muting strings with one hand while striking keys with the other."
On April 19, 2010, he appeared as the sole guest on show 575 of the multimedia WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Twenty minutes into the program, he described an unusual method of playing the piano with muted strings, a development inspired by watching blues guitar players. He can be seen reaching into the piano with his left hand and muting the strings, while with his right hand he is playing "An African in the Americas".
Personal life
In his later life, Winston resided in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was active in philanthropy, frequently performing in concerts for various charitable causes.
Death
Winston suffered from several forms of cancer, including thyroid cancer, skin cancer, and myelodysplastic syndrome, the last of which was resolved following a bone marrow transplant in 2013.
Discography
Source:
Studio albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of albums, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;"| Album details
! scope="col" colspan="4"| Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:10em;"| Certifications
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em;font-size:85%;"|US<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em;font-size:85%;"|US<br/>New Age<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em;font-size:85%;"|US<br/>Jazz<br />
! scope="col" style="width:3.5em;font-size:85%;"|US<br/>Holiday<br />
|-
!scope="row"|Piano Solos (later rereleased as Ballads and Blues 1972)
|
- Released: 1972
- Label: Takoma/Dancing Cat
| — || — || — || —
|
|-
!scope="row"| Autumn
|
- Released: November 1, 1980
- Label: Windham Hill/Dancing Cat
| 139 || 14 || 12 || —
|
- US: Platinum
|-
!scope="row"| Winter into Spring
|
- Released: July 27, 1982
- Label: Windham Hill/Dancing Cat
| 127 || 11 || 14 || —
|
- US: Platinum
- US: 3× Platinum
|
- Released: May 3, 2019
- Label: RCA/Dancing Cat
| — || 1 || 2 || —
|
|-
!scope="row"| Night
|
- Released: May 6, 2022
- Label: RCA/Dancing Cat
| — || — || 16 || —
|
|-
!scope="row"| Eastern Montana
|
- Released: August 30, 2024
- Label: Dancing Cat/Valley
| — || 1 || 22 || —
|
|-
!scope="row"| Beloved
|
- Released: April 18, 2025
- Label: Dancing Cat/Valley
| — || — || — || —
|
|-
| colspan="15" style="font-size:90%"| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart
|}
Solo harmonica album
- 2012 Harmonica Solos
Benefit EPs, albums and singles
- 2001 Remembrance - A Memorial Benefit (piano, guitar & harmonica solos)
- 2013 Silent Night - A Benefit Single for Feeding America
- 2017 Spring Carousel: A Cancer Research Benefit
Soundtracks
- 1984 The Velveteen Rabbit (solo piano soundtrack with narration by Meryl Streep)
- 1988 This Is America, Charlie Brown—The Birth of the Constitution (piano & harpsichord solos)
- 1995 Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (solo guitar soundtrack with narration by Liv Ullmann)
- 2002 Pumpkin Circle (solo piano, guitar and harmonica soundtrack with narration by Danny Glover)
- 2003 Bread Comes to Life (solo piano, guitar and harmonica soundtrack with narration by Lily Tomlin)
References
External links
- American Piano Music Website