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'Night' proves once more that George Winston is a master of keyboard shadow and light / offBeat Magazine

Renowned pianist George Winston has released his 16th solo piano album, NIGHT, on RCA Records. By virtue of his brilliance as one of the foremost instrumental composers of our time, NIGHT is a vivid look into Winston’s nocturnal world where life begins as the sun sets on each day. NIGHT features four original Winston compositions, as well as stunning renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom For The Stallion,” plus additional standout interpretations. Two decades in the making, NIGHT turns darkness into a prism of beauty as Winston captures his quintessential performances for a full-length studio album well worth the wait.
 
George Winston is undeniably a household name. He’s inspired fans and musicians alike with his singular solo acoustic piano songs selling more than 15 million albums. Winston’s music is evocative, offering us all a chance to take a step back from our perpetually busy lives and let our minds adventurously wonder. NIGHT is where things truly come alive for Winston. Whether on a performance stage, in a midnight recording session, practicing late at night, driving solo through urban city spaces, or witnessing nature grow under the moonlight, Winston celebrates his renowned 50-year career with an interstellar new recording for spring 2022.
 
“NIGHT is a collection of songs that I’ve recorded at five different studios,” says George Winston. “There is a natural wonder that only occurs in the evening and NIGHT basically scales the clock from midnight to 7am. With every dark hour that passes, daytime will soon occur. The sun shines down on the earth all day, it warms the oceans and the forests, and awakens the majority of earth’s inhabitants, and at sundown the nocturnal animals wake up for nighttime activities, and there are feelings of solitude and uncertainty. This all translates well for inspiration for compositions and interpretations of other composers’ pieces.” 

offBeat Magazine's JOHN WIRT writes….A musician who describes himself as a creature of the night, pianist George Winston charts a nocturnal journey with Night. His sensitive keyboard touch and beautiful tone do invoke the reverie many associate with the nighttime. There’s a prayerful quality, too, in this 16th solo piano album from the 72-year-old pianist who’s survived three bouts with cancer.

Winston opens with “Beverly,” a warm and elegantly played original composition that’s part folksong, part hymn. Maintaining a reverential atmosphere, Winston, a devotee of New Orleans pianists Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey “Piano” Smith and Allen Toussaint, continues with an almost sacred interpretation of Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion.”

For his rendition of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah,” Winston makes the usual choice of deemphasizing the famous melody that’s been recorded and performed by so many artists. In contrast, after almost hiding the “Hallelujah” melody beneath elaborate keyboard accompaniment, Winston obviously accentuates the melody in a fragmentary reading of Rod Taylor’s “Making a Way.”

The album’s most intimate and tender selection may be Winston’s rendition of Laura Nyro’s “He’s a Runner.” His compositions “Kai Forest” and the Hawaiian slack-key guitar-inspired “Wahine Hololio” see him returning to the nature themes he’s often pursued. Both compositions pair muted piano strings with ringing bell-like notes. Another Hawaiian selection, the gently wrenching “Pua Sadinia ‘Not to Be Forgotten’,” is, hands-down, the album’s most elegiac selection.

Acquired taste though the idiosyncratic Winston may be, Night proves once more that he is a master of keyboard shadow and light.

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