George Winston, Gentle Genius

A mild-mannered man waited in front of his grand piano as the crowd settled in Thursday night at the Pabst Theater. He eyed us through round spectacles and smiled through  a graying beard. He wears his balding middle-age with grace and ease. George Winston, with his casual demeanor and humble ways, doesn’t look the part of a piano god. But he is one.

To the delight of a mixed audience, Winston played hauntingly sincere piano compositions that touched on all his expertise. Winston, best known for his influence on New Age music, sets himself apart from genre-trapped musicians by incorporating modern and classical elements into his flowing solo piano and slack key guitar pieces. Winston has absorbed diverse influences ranging from the Doors to Thomas “Fats” Waller to Hawaiian slack key to the New Orleans sound and crafted them into something unique to him.

Winston’s fingers danced across the keys for two 50 minute sets. He displayed great dexterity and passion in such favorites as Woods and Rain. He played his summer set list, which was ironic in the chill of Milwaukee spring, on piano and guitar. We could fancy that his melodies would coax the sun back into the sky.

Winston capitalized on the intimacy of the lower-level only show and chatted with the audience about musical influences and memories. We were close enough to get a good view of his hands (and their reflections on the piano) as they stormed across the keys, and of his peculiar way of reaching into the piano to manipulate the instrument’s strings and hammers.

Winston’s arrangements, compositions and playing create an atmosphere of simultaneous excitement and relaxation. During the delicate romantic pieces, Winston has a way of throwing in staccato hammers. When he layers two melodies. listeners may choose between sinking into the rhythm or riding atop the crystal-sharp melodic phrase.

George Winston is the choice of music fans with open minds. Students of the craft benefit from watching his technique, and anyone can listen contentedly as he doles out enchanting interpretations of the world around us.