By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 20, 2002
When you think of George Winston, you don’t necessarily think of the Doors as a major influence. But the band was such an inspiration to the Grammy Award-winning pianist that he recorded “Night Divides the Day–The Music of the Doors.”
“They were one of the main reasons I started playing the organ [in 1967],” Winston says, phoning from New York. “They were one of the best bands ever. I just never thought I’d ever have the nerve to tackle their songs.”
Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek loved Winston’s versions so much he even performed live with him.
“Ray and I communicate pretty regularly,” Winston says. “He was very encouraging. Every so often, Ray and I play a duo piano concert. He wanted to do it and I said, ‘You pick the songs and tempo, and I’ll throw in some ideas.’ Honestly, I’m strictly a soloist, but I look at it like I’m backing him up. He’s the composer. If you were playing with Bach, you’d say, ‘Mr. Bach, you choose.’ Why wouldn’t you do the same with him? He’s amazing. I’m an interpreter.”
The music he prefers to interpret is primarily North American, he says, because that’s what he grew up on. At his concert Saturday evening at the Center for the Performing Arts at Governors State University, Winston will perform some “Peanuts” pieces, a few Doors tunes, and he’ll also show off his skill on the Hawaiian slack key guitar–a finger-picking guitar tradition that pre-dates the steel guitar.
For this show, Winston has partnered with the Monee Township Pantry to conduct a canned food drive. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable canned items to donate. Winston also is giving 100 percent of the proceeds from that evening’s sales of his CDs, tapes, videos and posters to benefit the organization.
“It’s not that difficult to help,” he says. “Everyone seems to be even more generous this time of year, so we decided to try to help some of the less fortunate.”
Understanding music: Sometimes it’s not about practicing, it’s about letting time go by. When you plant a tree, you don’t do anything. You let time go by and it grows. It takes time for music to become part of your memory.
Favorite venue to perform in: The smaller, the better–the best is a 100-seat hall. In Chicago, I love Orchestra Hall and Pick-Staiger [in Evanston]. They have an intimate feel, which is great for the audience and the performer.
How ironic: Most Doors songs didn’t even have any piano at all. That was the fun part of doing my album.
Venue with the best acoustics: You can’t beat Orchestra Hall. The Chicago Theatre also is very nice.
Favorite thing to do in Chicago during your time off: Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of free time when I’m there. But the city is so beautiful. It’s always a treat to come back.
Favorite foreign song: That’s a tough one. I play mostly American songs because that’s what I grew up with. I like to do “Arirang” every now and again. That’s the one Korean song non-Koreans always do. But I’d rather play St. Louis blues or something like that, because it takes awhile to get to know a piece. If you spent 10 or 20 years on a piece from another country, you might be able to do it justice.
On wooing his songs: I have a long relationship with most of the songs I play, but I like a good tune no matter where it comes from.
Musical choices: I don’t play the three B’s [Bach, Beethoven and Brahms]. I play Sam Cooke, Gershwin, and Lennon and McCartney.
Best thing about playing to Chicago audiences: They like their music.
The last word on Chicago: Great city, great people.
