George Winston’s musical journey brings him back to Spokane

It’s just turned fall, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early for winter. Grammy-winning pianist George Winston will play music from his “Winter Show” program during a matinee recital Sunday at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.

“It’s always great to be back,” the Montana native said. “I’ve been coming to Spokane since about ’83 or so.”

Winston has recorded several piano, guitar and harmonica solo and collaboration albums with his characteristic “folk piano” sound. The jazz, blues, rock, and stride nuances of his original piano style have garnered the support of audiences for decades.

His musical journey started more than 50 years ago when he heard an album by the Doors for the first time. This initially prompted his early aspirations for playing the organ in a similar band. That changed quite suddenly when he heard the work of another of his major influencers.

“Four years later I heard Fats Waller’s recordings from the 20s and 30s and immediately switched to solo piano,” said Winston. “I had a couple of those very, very quick realizations.”

His style continued to develop, gradually working in aspects of other artists as he discovered them until finally building the right sound.

After Fats Waller came Teddy Wilson and then another piece of the musical puzzle emerged when he began to study some more of the great New Orleans pianists including Professor Longhair, James Booker, the late Henry Butler, Doctor John and Jon Cleary.

Winston has brought two prevailing modes out of these influences: “rural folk” and another more “urban” style.

“I call it folk or I call it melodic or rural folk … it’s a rural sensibility whereas the other uptempo stuff, a lot of that is urban,” said Winston. “It’s nice to have the kind of complimentary urban/rural melodic/ballad. I think we all want that in our lives, these very complimentary things. They kind of balance things out or kind of provide the basis for what we want to do in different areas.”

The rural folk style, he explained, is more “simple and melodic, letting the piano ring out, resonant, not a lot of notes and usually at a ballad slow tempo.”

Winston describes himself as a “song player” and an interpreter first and foremost, not necessarily a pianist. His broad interests moved him to pick up the guitar and harmonica to allow for an equally broad repertoire of cover work.

“The piano isn’t right for everything,” Winston explained. “There can be great pieces that aren’t quite piano pieces. I can do a good chunk of the songs I want to play on those three.”

He went on to explain a little more of the creative process he goes through while interpreting works of interest. The pieces Winston gravitates toward are often originally written for larger groups that he will then rewritte or rearrange for solo piano, guitar or harmonica.

“I don’t try to compose, something kind of emerges every so often, just kind of unfolds and I write down the chords,” Winston said. “Some of those things stay around, some don’t. I don’t have the temperament to try to compose, I don’t think I could even try to, it’s just something that happens every so often.”

Sometimes the process can take quite a while.

“‘Pixie #13’ … took me a year to be able to play it,” Winston said of a track on his most recent album, 2017’s “Spring Carousel.” “Not everything translates into solo piano right away, some things don’t translate at all. It’s kind of like languages, some languages don’t translate into others very well.” But “the music always tells me what to do, without fail. I can’t always do it but it always tells me.”

All proceeds from CD sales at the recital will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank. Attendees are also encouraged to bring canned food donations.