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George Winston
solo
piano
His piano pieces have strength and beauty because they are constructed using compositional techniques borrowed from classical music as well as blues and folk roots: themes are developed, ideas are examined in varying settings, structural elements relate to and enhance each other. His rhythms are not foundations upon which to scatter notes but are intrinsic to his musical ideas. But what makes Plains revolutionary is Winston''s expansion of the limited harmonic language of new age music. The album's sixteen tracks offer a bracing variety of Winston originals, traditional folk melodies as well as contemporary and classic pop songs. An eighteen track limited edition cd which includes two bonus Hawaiian slack key guitar tunes will be released first. Winston is a master in introducing melodies one can sing after a few listens. His piano has a somber bass section and a solid treble that gives much depth to his music, ...creating those musical 'hooks' that stay in your head all day. He passes the "don't do anything more than three times rule" and moves into wider melodic content that acts as a bridge between past centuries and this centuries contemporary music scene. Everything George composes is very tonal in nature, and peace loving in meaning. By manipulating scales Winston shifts harmonic perspective; a chord or note which has been serving one function in one key begins to serve a different function in another key. The music becomes richer and more enchanting as the listener perceives changes in the harmonic landscape. These modulations are not simply technical tricks or puzzles; harmonic movement is one of music's elemental features which, like melody, rhythm, tempo, volume, timbre and silence, can be combined in ways which can induce in us an ineffable pleasure. Winston spent much of his youth in eastern Montana on the edge of the Great Plains, and it is this starkly beautiful landscape that inspires the performances and pieces on Plains. Said the artist, "Even on my earlier albums with the season themes, the plains are a deep inspiration for everything I do." Winston's piano music is sometimes sparse, sometimes thick with notes but there are no purposeless sounds or silences. The best of his efforts are tremendously seductive. The integrity of his compositional technique gives them a satisfying completeness. His simultaneous combination of differing rhythmic patterns produces intriguing additive meters. His music is accessible; it is pleasing. But his most dramatic contribution to new piano music, and, by inference, to other harmonically simplistic idioms, is his elegant manipulation of tonal relationships through which he reveals an unexplored avenue for artistic expression, an avenue which remains neglected. Songs on Plains include: the traditional American folk tune "Dubuque," Windham Hill artist Philip Aaberg's "Before Barbed Wire," "Frangetti," a medley of "Give Me Your Hand/La Valse Pour Les Petites Jeunes Filles," "No Ke Ano Ahiahi," three Winston originals "Graduation," "Rainsong (Fortune's Lullaby)," and "Cloudburst," the Sammy Cahn standard "Teach Me Tonight," another medley of turn-of-the-century Americana entitled "Merry-Go-Round," "The Dance" (made popular by Garth Brooks), Angelo Badalamenti's"The Swan," "Ike la Ladana," Sarah McLachlan's "Angel," Chet Atkins' "Waltz'For The Lonely," and George Winston's own "Plains (Eastern Montana Blues)." With the release of Plains, George Winston continues his herculean touring schedule, with concert dates planned for America and Asia through the end of the year 2000. Check the Windham Hill site to see if he will be performing near you. Maybe I'll see you there! Five stars! Kudos George! Review by Ben Kettlewell information:
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Premier
Windham Hill pianist and flagship artist, George Winston has
just released Plains, his first album of new solo
piano recordings since Linus & Lucy, and the
first in Winston's trademark "folk piano" style since the
1994 album, Forest which he produced.