Windham Hill Artists - An Evening With Windham Hill Live (1983)

An Evening With... was a star-studded 'live sampler' album issued by Windham Hill in their first flush of major success.  From the liner notes: "On October 9th, 1982, a group of ten Windham Hill musicians gathered for two shows at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It was during those two shows that these recordings were made."

It's a treat to hear all these great musicians out of the studio and on stage, even if just a fleeting spotlight falls on each of them.  Michael Hedges is up first with a superb Rickover's Dream from Aerial Boundaries, the live solo performance showcasing his extrodinary talent to an even greater extent than the original.  Not to be outdone, Alex De Grassi turns in nine minutes of rolling loveliness in Turning: Turning Back, then is heard in a group format on another of his pieces, Clockwork.  That odd sound you hear is a lyricon, the first ever electronic wind controller; the player here, the late Chuck Greenberg, was one of the co-engineers of the instrument.

Hedges returns to kick off the album's second half, again playing a track from Aerial Boundaries, Spare Change.  Dedicated to Steve Reich, the piece is backed up by Liz Story on piano and bassist Michael Manring, and displays just how much the early Windham Hill stable owed to the classic ECM sound.  Next in the spotlight is Windham Hill founder William Ackerman to play two of his pieces.  Visiting has more lyricon from Greenberg and bass from Manring, then Hawk Circle is a guitar duet with Hedges while George Winston backs them on piano.  And it's Winston who closes the album, in a solo medley of Reflections and John McLaughlin's Lotus Feet.  Absolutely gorgeous music from start to finish.

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Windham Hill at SGTG:
Piano Solos | Autumn | December (Winston)
Solid Colors | Unaccountable Effect (Story)
Southern Exposure (De Grassi)
Aerial Boundaries (Hedges)

George Winston - Piano Solos (1973) (reissued as Ballads And Blues 1972 - The Early Recordings)

Seven years before George Winston became Windham Hill's breakout star, he released his debut album 'Piano Solos' on John Fahey's Takoma label.  Windham Hill reissues, titled 'Ballads And Blues 1972', started from 1981, to make these formative recordings available to the new audiences brought in by Winston's success.

It's a short and sweet, fun little record that packs in all of Winston's early influences on his playing.  The impressionistic, 'New Age' pianism from Autumn onwards is only hinted at here, in a set of bluesy originals, covers (including Fahey's Brenda's Blues) and traditional melodies that cleave more closely to their roots.  Even so, Winston's talents on the piano are clearly fully-formed, and listeners who might not be as receptive to 'New Age' piano music will probably like this better than Winston's later recordings.

Original LP cover

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Previously posted at SGTG: Autumn | December

George Winston - December (1982)

Moving to something more appropriately festive for this post and the next couple, here's Montana-born pianist George Winston's third album, which was the followup to his breakthrough record Autumn.  The title of 'December' is a deft move that announces that this won't just be some schlocky record for the holiday season, with a dozen or so Christmas carols rendered on piano - Winston arranged a much more understated and satisfying suite of music than that.

When he does interpret carols, Winston goes for only two obvious ones - Carol Of The Bells, and The Holly And The Ivy.  Elsewhere his choices range from Jesus Rest Your Head, from 19th century Appalachia, to Alfred S. Burt's Some Children See Him, from 1951.  Winston's winterscape is then fleshed out by the rest of the programme, stretching from his own compositions Thanksgiving and Peace that bookend the album, to rearranged bits of classical music including Pachelbel's Canon.  Together it all works beautifully, adding up to the perfect 40-minute oasis of calm amongst the bustle of Christmas preparation.

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George Winston - Autumn (1980)

Long overdue a solo piano Friday round here, so here's an absolutely gorgeous one whose time has come, with its titular season setting in.  The second album by Michigan native George Winston, Autumn was recorded some seven years after his 'Ballads And Blues' debut after playing some of his music to Windham Hill boss William Ackerman.  It kickstarted a hugely successful career in solo piano recordings for Winston, and helped make Windham Hill into a New Age household name.

I guess it's debatable whether this this is actually New Age music per se - to my ECM-centric mind, Winston's a more accessible Keith Jarrett/Art Lande than anything else.  This isn't exactly jazz either though, despite strong influences detectable.  But categorizations aside (Winston himself prefers 'rural folk piano'), all that really matters is Autumn's 45 minutes of utterly evocative, stunningly beautiful piano music that suits background listening or full attentiveness equally well.  Its first half features three longer tracks including two 9-10 minute suites, with the four mostly shorter pieces on side two delving deeper into Winston's formative influences of blues and stride piano, and New Orleans R&B piano.  Immersive loveliness par excellence for watching the leaves starting to turn.

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