George Winston, one of the bestselling instrumental pianists in the world during his heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, died Sunday at age 73. The announcement came through his social media and we…
, one of the bestselling instrumental pianists in the world during his heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, died Sunday at age 73. The announcement came through his social media and website and said he “painlessly left this world while asleep” following a decade-long battle with cancer.
Winston started his career performing what he called “folk piano,” although in later years it was sometimes categorized as part of the New Age genre at the peak of that instrumental movement, or even filed under classical, although he eschewed any of those labels. He recorded his first solo piano album, “Ballads and Blues,” in 1972 for the Folkways label, but didn’t become a household name until releasing the seasonally themed “Autumn” and “December” in 1980 and 1982, respectively.
“I came up with the melodic style that I play in 1971, and I have always called it ‘Folk Piano’ , since it is melodic and not complicated in its approach, like folk guitar picking and folk songs, and has a rural sensibility,” he wrote on his website.
Lesser known than his predominant style was Winston’s interest in New Orleans-style R&B piano, and he even claimed that 90% of the songs he played were in that style — “mainly played at the solo piano dances I do” — although this was rarely a staple of his typically more sedate recordings.
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