George Winston: Night Divides The Day

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Rudy

¡Que siga la fiesta!
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Well, I managed to get my hands on a copy of this Doors tribute CD to give it a spin. Let's just say, I'm glad I didn't buy it. :confused: To my ears, Winston's renditions of these Doors songs (not very good songs to begin with) are somewhat sterile and robotic...not much excitement. They come across more like sheets of music in a solo piano exercise book--the melodies are there, but they're not very engaging to listen to. Reminds me more of a Holiday Inn cocktail lounge pianist trying to 'rock out' and be hip to the 40-something crowd sipping watered-down Martinis at the bar. The intentions behind this album were certainly noble, but...I don't know, maybe I just don't get it. I happen to like Winston's earliest Windham Hill recordings, like December (a holiday favorite around here). One can almost hear his matriarch piano teacher yelling above the din, "With feeling now, George!"

I have taken an early liking to Diana Krall's latest CD, Live In Paris, and will report more on it later. Still can't confess to being a huge fan, but the combination of her dusky voice and Ogerman's accompaniment on her last CD really got under my skin in a big way.

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Neil-Though I made a negative comment about George's Doors tribute,I haven't heard it-it just sounds wacky. I do know that I have given George's Vince Guaraldi tribute more than a few tries and still come up with-a very well recorded dull album. Those little "Peanuts" cartoon pieces are not the most earth shattering jazz pieces ever written but they are fun to listen to,good for playing for people who don't think they like piano jazz and open up a few doors a la Herb Alpert and trumpet jazz. But not in George's hands. Give me Vince Guaraldi's originals,please. I only wish his Warner albums would have been recorded with an acoustic piano instead of the cheesy harpsichord effects the electric piano he used on those albums. A loved Guaraldi album is "At Grace Cathedral",including the truly moving "Theme for Grace",which Winston can't raise from the dead on his interpretation. Mac
 
What really pulls the Winston album down, IMHO, are the piano arrangements. To my ears, they are too "busy", sounding robotic, a bit stiff (formally stiff, like a starched shirt), and again, the way the left hand is working, it sounds like he was catching up on practicing his piano lessons. To me, there was no "space" around the notes.

Phil Collins, in one of the videos I have, mentions the drum machine. Phil's a great drummer...why does he use a drum machine? When writing music, he uses it extensively. As he desribed it, say you're trying to play something on the piano. You're using notes to create the rhythm, and that's restricting. The drum machine allowed him to "open up" his writing possibilities...since the drum machine was the timekeeper, he could concentrate on other aspects of the songwriting process. "In The Air Tonight" is a good example--try to imagine that without the drum machine, played solo on a synthesizer. He didn't leave the drum machine, in many cases, for the actual recording, but it was used in the writing phase.

Winston seems to be trying to make his left hand the eighth-note metronome on the Doors songs I heard. It's tiring to listen to! More space, some drama, and some feeling would have helped him pull this one off more successfully.

I can only imagine how his Peanuts recording sounded. My favorite Guaraldi covers come from David Benoit--he at least injects some life into his own versions! I've always been fond of Guaraldi's recordings, though...I'd only known his Peanuts work, but I have a couple of his other Fantasy albums (Black Orpheus, In Person and the From All Sides album with Bola Sete) and I've played them a bit. His easygoing jazz suits me when I'm in the mood for it!

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