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George Winston: Autumn

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Windham Hill Records
Released: 1980
Time:
 46:07
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): William Ackermann
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.georgewinston.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2001.01.09
Price in €: 6,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


September
[1] Colors / Dance (George Winston) - 10:25
[2] Woods (George Winston) - 6:47
[3] Longing / Love (George Winston) - 9:10

October
[4] Road (George Winston) - 4:14
[5] Moon (George Winston) - 7:44
[6] Sea (George Winston) - 2:42
[7] Stars (George Winston) - 5:36

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


George Winston - Piano

William Ackermann - Producer
Harn Soper - Engineer
Russel Bond - Engineer
Bernie Grundman - Mastering
Ron May - Cover Photo
William Ackerman - Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Self-described "rural folk piano" player George Winston was among the earliest and most successful proponents of the genre of contemporary instrumental music later dubbed new age. Although born in Michigan in 1949, he was raised primarily in Montana, the extreme seasonal changes he experienced there later greatly influencing the pastoral feel of his music. Even as a child, Winston preferred instrumental music over vocal performances, counting among his early heroes Booker T. and the MGs, Floyd Cramer, and the Ventures; he did not take up music until after high school, however, beginning with organ and electric piano but moving to acoustic piano by 1971. Influenced by the stride piano of Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, Winston turned from rock and R&B to jazz, and soon released his first solo piano effort, Ballads and Blues - 1972, after which he mysteriously retired from music for the next several years. Discovering the music of the legendary New Orleans R&B pianist Professor Longhair in 1979 was the epiphany Winston was seeking to inspire a return to performing; signing to the Windham Hill label, between 1980 and 1982 he recorded a trilogy of albums - Autumn, Winter into Spring, and December - of impressionistic, seasonal-themed piano musings which laid much of the groundwork for the new age boom to follow. Winston's music continued to grow in popularity and influence in the years to follow, but in typically enigmatic fashion, he virtually dropped from sight for the remainder of the 1980s, resurfacing only in 1986 to score a reading of The Velveteen Rabbit by actress Meryl Streep. Finally, in 1991, he returned to action, completing his seasonal cycle with Summer; Forest followed three years later. In 1996, Winston paid tribute to another of his greatest influences with Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi. A compilation album, All the Seasons of George Winston, was released in the spring of 1998, followed a year later by Plains..

Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide



Winston's impressions of the fall season are full of slow chording and sudden melodic runs on his acoustic piano. He captures the mixed feelings of the season, both its final flaring of life and its gradual retreat.

William Ruhlmann, All-Music Guide



The precursor to 1982's commercial breakthrough, December, George Winston's 1980 Windham Hill debut boasts all the lyrical power and poignancy of its follow-up. A simple, clear recording for solo piano, Autumn finds Winston developing simple melodic motifs with studied left-hand underpinning, on hypnotic pieces like "Woods," which moves from a brisk rhythmic figure to rubato minor-key runs. Leaving pauses and breaths in all the right places, Winston suggests the play of color and light, the comfortable melancholy, and the encroaching slow-down that characterizes the fall season. Full of memorable themes, sure pacing, and whiffs of classical grandeur, Autumn is a timeless album that belongs to the firmament of the new age canon.

James Rotondi, Amazon.com essential recording



Vor December, dem großen kommerziellen Durchbruch (1982), kündigt bereits George Winstons Windham Hill Debüt (1980) die gesamte lyrische Ausdrucksstärke und Tiefe des Nachfolgealbums an. Autumn ist eine einfache, klare Aufnahme für Piano Solo und Winston entwickelt hier einfache melodische Motive mit gekonnter Untermalung der linken Hand bei Stücken mit hypnotischer Kraft wie "Woods", das sich von einer schnellen rhythmischen Figur zu langsamen Passagen in Moll bewegt. Winston lässt Atempausen an allen passenden Stellen und suggeriert das Spiel von Farbe und Licht, die behagliche Melancholie und die sich ausbreitende Verlangsamung des Lebens, die den Herbst so kennzeichnet. Autumn ist ein zeitloses Album voller unvergesslicher Themen, sicherer Tempi und einem Hauch von klassischer Größe, die zu den Höhepunkten des New-Age-Repertoires gehört.

James Rotondi, Amazon.com
 

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