Tim Story - Glass Green (1987)

A few years down the line from their beginnings in solo instrumental music (see links below), Windham Hill began to diversify into more New Agey world music, jazz fusion, and ambient loveliness like today's post.  So to complete my collection from the label for now, here's the Windham Hill debut (he'd stay for one more release) by Philly-born ambient composer Tim Story.

Glass Green is a fitting album title for this kind of music: bright but diffuse, and beautifully melodic whilst staying on the right side of sacchrine.  It sounds quite digital; Story's hardware used on the record isn't specified, but well employed across ten atmospheric sketches that sometimes bring to mind the Eno & Budd collaborations.  It's also occasionally reminscent of Roedelius from a similar era, someone Story would go on to collaborate with (that's coming up in a week or two), as well as working with Moebius just before the latter's death.

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Windham Hill at SGTG:
Piano Solos | Autumn | December (George Winston)
Solid Colors | Unaccountable Effect (Liz Story)
Southern Exposure (Alex De Grassi)
Breakfast In The Field | Aerial Boundaries (Michael Hedges)
An Evening With Windham Hill Live (Various Artists)

Michael Hedges - Breakfast In The Field (1981)

The discography of acoustic guitar virtuoso Michael Hedges might have been tragically cut short after sixteen years, but it contained some sublime music.  It all began here, after Windham Hill boss William Ackerman discovered Hedges playing in a coffee shop and offered him a deal immediately.  It's an interestingly low-key start for someone of Hedges' jaw-dropping talent, especially in the laidback pair of opening tracks.  The reverbed production of Aerial Boundaries hadn't been intergrated into Hedges' sound yet, making Breakfast In The Field a showcase of his raw sound that still resonates.

And with just that guitar technique front and centre (barring backup cameos from Windham Hill mainstays Michael Manring on bass and George Winston on piano), it becomes apparent as the record progresses just how much the label had struck gold with their new signing.  The album consists of mostly brief pieces, delightful little miniatures of skill and melodic sensibility, like the atmospheric title track or the nightclub down the street-inspired Funky Avocado.  The most drawn-out track is the almost five minutes of Two Days Old, another gorgeous highlight of an essential album.  A major talent had arrived, in the most understated, unpretentious way possible.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
Aerial Boundaries
An Evening With Windham Hill Live

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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pw: sgtg

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

Liz Story - Unaccountable Effect (1985)

Liz Story's follow-up to her debut Solid Colors (see last week) offered another album's worth of superior Windham Hill solo piano, but with a couple of surprises bookending the album.  The most striking of these was the opening title track, in which Story collaborated with Mark Isham on synth to create a beautifully atmospheric piece.  On the album closer Deeper Reasons, Story collaborates with a percussionist (and also plays some herself) to eerie dramatic effect.

Everything in between these two new-sound tracks is performed by Story alone, but even here there's a definite progression from her debut.  The Bill Evans aficionado of Solid Colors has matured more into her own sound, and perhaps became more of what might be termed a New Age pianist, but still very much on her own terms.  There's no denying Story's considerable talent and lightness of touch on all of these tracks, and I think I'd go as far as saying that this is my favourite Windham Hill piano album that I've heard yet.  Definitely the most satisfying on repeat listens.

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Liz Story - Solid Colors (1982)

Out of the seemingly endless stream of solo piano demo tapes that were being mailed to Windham Hill in the wake of George Winston's initial success, there was one pianist that Will Ackerman was convinced was the real deal.  Born in San Diego in 1956, Liz Story was classically trained and had become set on a career in music following a meeting with her idol Bill Evans after a concert of his.

Story's debut album Solid Colors certainly provided much of the impressionistic accessibility that the Windham Hill audience were looking for - it's been described in retrospect as "the intellectual sister of Winston's December" - but didn't always land with more traditional jazz audiences when "critics, expecting her to tackle Ellington and Monk, panned her performances."

Their loss, to be honest: from this distance, Solid Colors is a great solo piano record, rooted in jazz, that prioritises melody and economy but doesn't dumb down her nimble touch.  Story might not be Keith Jarrett, but she's certainly more versatile than Winston, and breezes through nine originals and a closing cover of Evans' Peace Piece in a great sounding production.  Next time: Story broadens her sound a little with the help of an ambient-jazz legend.

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Alex De Grassi - Southern Exposure (1983)

Solo fingerpicked steel guitar with folk and jazz influences, from Japan-born American guitarist Alex De Grassi.  This was De Grassi's fourth album for his cousin William Ackerman's Windham Hill label - must have been handy to have a relative running a growing enterprise with a cornerstone of Fahey/Kottke-style guitar.

Ackerman and De Grassi were of course destined to sit in the very long shadow cast by WH's most legendary guitarist Michael Hedges, but on this evidence De Grassi had much to offer on his own merits.  Southern Exposure starts with the all too brief Overland, a bubbling spring of sparkling melody, before settling in for the more reflective Blue And White.  After that, great tunes keep coming, worming their way into your subconscious with every listen: 36, Street Waltz, Subway, the short and sweet title track - to name just a few.  And it all sounds fantastic - in the sleevenote detail typical of early Windham Hill, this was all "recorded live to two-track digital using a Sony PCM 1600". 

original LP cover

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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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Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (1984)

Second album from acoustic guitar virtuoso Hedges, who died in a road accident aged just 43; a huge loss of a true individualist.  Often filed in 'new age' bins due to his association with the Windham Hill label, there was much more to his technique and melodic sensibility that should've reached a massive audience.

Everything's instrumental here (he'd evetually record some vocal tracks later in the 80s) and perfectly produced, with an ECM-esque swathe of reverb highlighting all the hammering/pulling techniques and making for a timeless record.  Can never quite decide if I like the cover of Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, or if it misses the mark a bit (surely he could've had a stab at...anything more guitar-based from Young's catalogue, and made it shine with his brilliant technique?) - download and decide for yourself, and enjoy the rest of this gorgeous album.

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