George Winston, a pianist and composer whose simple melodies sought to evoke the seasonal rhythms of nature and who became a signature style of New Age music in the 1980s with popular albums such as Autumn and December, died on April 4, 1980 June at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He was 74.
His death was confirmed by his publicist, Jesse Cutler. Mr Winston has had various forms of cancer and underwent a bone marrow transplant for a blood condition a decade ago. He lived in the San Francisco area and resided in Williamsport near his tour manager.
Mr. Winston released more than 15 albums over the course of his five-decade career, selling more than 15 million copies, of mainly instrumental compositions, which he dubbed “Folk Piano” and incorporated elements of jazz and blues, set to repetitive melodies and lurching Arpeggios have been reduced. His inspiration stayed rooted in nature, trying to convey the changing seasons or moments like a moonlit night or waves on the beach.
His music also became part of a musical current that gained strength in the 1980s. The new-age sound—an ethereal and evocative genre that evoked associations with meditation and spirituality—had emerged on the West Coast and reached a wider audience through musicians like Greek composer Yanni and Irish singer-songwriter Enya. Mr. Winston was quickly embraced by the New Age music scene.
However, music reviewers often found Mr. Winston—and New Age music in general—a prime target. “The stuff is all non-stick audio Teflon,” wrote New York Times music critic Jon Pareles in a 1987 essay on New Age music. Following the release of Mr. Winston’s 1999 album Plains, Mike Joyce in The Washington Post described Mr. Winston as a specialist in “drowsy tempi and in crafting arrangements that iron out nearly all harmonic creases.”
Mr Winston acknowledged that his no-nonsense approach left him open to criticism. “One person’s punk rock is what another person sings ‘Om’ or plays the harp,” he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1982. “It’s all valid – everyone has their own path.” I don’t want to sit around and listen to myself all day.”
He also scoffed at the idea that his work had a spiritual dimension. “I just play the songs as best I can, inspired by the seasons, the topographies and regions… and try to improve as a player over time,” he wrote on his website.
The development of what Mr. Winston called his “rural sensibility” began with music far from the prairies and forests. He had given up piano lessons as a teenager, and in 1967 he encountered the vibrant organ and keyboard style of Ray Manzarek of the Doors. “I had to start playing the organ,” said Mr. Winston.
He studied recordings of jazz organists like Jimmy Smith. He returned to the piano to immerse himself in the step and boogie-woogie vibes of masters like Fats Waller and Professor Longhair (Roy Byrd). In step play, the left hand moves between the bass and chords while the right hand plays the improvisation.
“My approach is more North American than European,” said Mr. Winston, “and I treat the piano like an African American-tuned drum.”
His 1973 debut album Piano Solos (re-released 1981 as Ballads and Blues) was a collection of folk-inspired tracks featuring guitarist John Fahey. In 1980, Mr. Winston signed with Windham Hill Records, one of the first labels to develop a diverse array of New Age artists. By this time he had developed his style of sparse melodies played in the stride piano tradition.
His album Autumn (1980) – featuring tracks like “Sea”, “Woods” and “Moon” – became a surprise hit and established Windham Hill as a pillar of New Age music. Mr. Winston followed with seasonal companion collections “Winter into Spring” and “December”, both released in 1982.
He went on to do Summer (1991) and Forest in 1994, which won a Grammy Award for Best New Age Recording.
His last album “Night” was released in 2022 and contains interpretations of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as well as other pieces by songwriter/singer Laura Nyro and pianist Allen Toussaint. The album also showed his deep interest in Hawaii’s slack-key guitar, a musical tradition he promoted on his label, Dancing Cat Records.
“The night has many colors, they’re just more subtle,” he said, referring to the album’s title. “And I’m nocturnal.”
“Seasons were entertainment”
George Otis Winston III was born on February 11, 1949 in Hart, Michigan and grew up in Mississippi, Florida and Montana. His father was a geologist and his mother was a business manager.
He said his affinity for nature began as a boy in eastern Montana, where the family home had no television service and only one radio station. “The seasons were entertainment,” he said, recalling jumping into piles of leaves in the fall and making snow angles in the winter drifts. In 2004 he released the album “Montana – A Love Story”.
He attended Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, but left before graduating. In 1996 he released Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi, a tribute to the jazz pianist behind the soundtracks to the “Peanuts” cartoon specials, and in 2002 he paid homage to the Doors with “Night Divides the Day.”
At concerts he sometimes surprised the audience with his guitar or harmonica. (He released George Winston: Harmonica Solos in 2012.) In 1987 at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, he invited the audience to come onstage to dance to one of Guaraldi’s tracks from 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas .
Among the survivors is a sister.
Mr. Winston’s musical image was composed. But he described a party after the concert in Warsaw as one of his best evenings. He modeled himself on his New Orleans idol, Professor Longhair.
“It was my greatest musical experience,” Winston told Downbeat magazine in 1986. “The wilder they got, the wilder I got.” Each time I thought, “What do I do next?” I fell back on Professor Longhair. It worked every time. I’m glad I was ready.”