Master Pianist George Winston To Perform At The Lincoln, 12/6

Inspired by the seasons and topographies, George Winston's concerts feature a variety of styles including melodic folk piano, New Orleans R&B piano, and stride piano. He performs songs from his seasonal favorites albums Autumn (1980), December (1982), Winter into Spring (1982), and Summer (1991), as well as Peanuts pieces from his Vince Guaraldi tribute albums Linus & Lucy -The Music of Vince Guaraldi (1996) and Love Will Come - The Music of Vince Guaraldi, Vol. 2 (2010), and more.

CAPA presents George Winston at the Lincoln Theatre (769 E. Long St.) on Wednesday, December 6, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $30 and $40 at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000.

George Winston grew up mainly in Montana, and also spent his later formative years in Mississippi and Florida. During this time, his favorite music was instrumental rock and instrumental R&B, including Floyd Cramer, the Ventures, Booker T & The MG's, Jimmy Smith, and many more.

Inspired by R&B, jazz, blues, and rock (especially the Doors), Winston began playing organ in 1967. In 1971, he switched to the acoustic piano after hearing recordings from the 1920s and the 1930s by the legendary stride pianists Thomas "Fats" Waller and the late Teddy Wilson. In addition to working on stride piano, he also at this time came up with his own style of melodic instrumental music on solo piano, called folk piano.

Since 1972, Winston has released 13 solo piano albums: Autumn (1980), Winter Into Spring (1982), December (1982), Summer (1991), Forest (1994), Linus & Lucy - The Music of Vince Guaraldi (1996), Plains (1999), which was inspired by his eastern Montana upbringing, Night Divides the Day - The Music of the Doors (2002), Montana - A Love Story (2004), and Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions - A Hurricane Relief Benefit (2006), Love Will Come - The Music of Vince Guaraldi Vol 2 (2010), Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions 2 - A Louisiana Wetlands Benefit (2012), and Spring Carousel - A Cancer Research Benefit.

In 2001, Winston released Remembrance - A Memorial Benefit, a seven-song EP of piano, guitar, and harmonica solos to benefit those affected by 9/11. He has also worked with the late George Levenson of Informed Democracy (www.informeddemocracy.com) on three projects-a solo guitar soundtrack for Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and soundtracks of piano, guitar and, harmonica solos for Pumpkin Circle and Bread Comes to Life. In addition, he has recorded the solo piano soundtrack for the children's story The Velveteen Rabbit for Rabbit Ears Productions.

Winston is also working on solo guitar and is recording the masters of the Hawaiian Slack Key guitar for an extensive series of albums. Slack Key is the name for the beautiful solo fingerstyle guitar tradition, unique to Hawaii, which began in the early 1800s and predated the steel guitar by over half a century.

He is also recording his main inspirations for harmonica-Sam Hinton, Rick Epping, and Curt Bouterse. Learn more at www.GeorgeWinston.com.

Photo credit: Steve Lankford

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