Beloved: A Celebration of Professor Longhair George Winston

• 1 Dance Home 03:36
• 2 Ball the Wall 03:28
• 3 Tipitina 1 05:25
• 4 Basketball 03:48
• 5 Big Chief 04:44
• 6 After Sundown 05:18
• 7 How Long Has That Train Been Gone 04:50
• 8 Doin' It 03:46
• 9 In the Night 02:39
• 10 Walk Your Blues Away 02:46
• 11 Trains 03:54
• 12 Fess Boogie 04:05
• 13 Hey Now Baby 03:35
• 14 Rolling Blues 02:01
• 15 Dr. Professor Holly 04:40
• 16 Tipitina 2 03:37
• Total Runtime 01:02:12

Info for Beloved: A Celebration of Professor Longhair

Experience the soul of New Orleans in George Winston's "Beloved: A Celebration of Professor Longhair", a captivating tribute to the legendary pianist's timeless grooves and rhythms featuring seven Winston originals and nine of Fess' fan favorites.

This album is a departure from his usual folk piano style, and celebrates one of George's main influences, New Orleans piano musician Professor Longhair, known as Fess to his fans. The album contains 7 original compositions by George Winston and 7 songs written by Professor Longhair along with a cover of Earl King's "Big Chief".

"Beloved begins with "Dance Home," one of the Winston originals. Bright and upbeat with a joyful groove, I dare you to listen to this one without tapping your feet! "Ball the Wall" is one of Professor Longhair's pieces and is great example of "piano euphoria"! There are two versions of "Tipitina" on the album - one of Fess' best-known pieces and more of a bluesy ballad. Winston cranks the energy level back up for Earl King's "Big Chief," which was also released as a single. Winston's "After Sundown" features his technique of placing one hand on the piano strings while playing with the other hand (just for short passages) to change the sound - a really fun piece! I love Winston's version of "How Long Has That Train Been Gone" - upbeat and high-spirited! "Walk Your Blues Away" slows the groove a bit, but that "walking" bass-line is infectious! Winston's "Trains" has a relatively steady rhythmic left hand, but the right dances all over the piano keyboard! Longhair's "Hey Now Baby" had a particularly strong influence on Winston back in the late 1970's. Winston had stopped playing the piano for two years because he couldn't play like his hero at the time, Fats Waller. When he heard a compilation of Professor Longhair's music, it reignited his passion and he started playing again - something many of us are very grateful for! The album closes with "Tipitina 2," a second version of Professor Longhair's piece. The slow, soulful arrangement is the perfect ending for a great album!" (Kathy Parsons, mainlypiano.com)

George Winston, piano

George Winston (1949-2023)
We are deeply saddened to share the news that George Winston has passed on after a 10-year battle with cancer. George quietly and painlessly left this world while asleep on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

George courageously managed serious cancers, including having a successful bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in 2013 at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, that gratefully extended his life by 10 years. Throughout his cancer treatments, George continued to write and record new music, and he stayed true to his greatest passion: performing for live audiences while raising funds for Feeding America to help fight the national hunger crisis along with donating proceeds from each of his concerts to local food banks. Across an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years, George’s music first became known and loved by his fans with the release of his two most iconic albums, Autumn (1980) and December (1982). George's recordings evolved with the times while garnering a GRAMMY Award for Forest (plus five GRAMMY nominations) and selling over 15 million albums. George touched the hearts of generations with his acclaimed solo acoustic piano compositions. From his early days in Montana, Mississippi and Florida, to his later life living in the San Francisco Bay Area and touring to cities worldwide, America’s beautiful landscapes and natural seasons shaped his singular instrumental folk piano. With 16 solo piano albums to his name, George recorded brilliant piano music, which includes tribute recordings for Vince Guaraldi, The Doors, a Hurricane Katrina relief benefit, Gulf Coast and Louisiana Wetlands benefits, September 11 benefit, a cancer research benefit for City of Hope, the Peanuts episode “This Is America Charlie Brown: The Birth Of The Constitution,” among others. George’s legacy includes his beloved catalog as well as an archive of his own acoustic guitar and harmonica recordings, and albums by an array of Hawaiian slack key artists on his own record label, Dancing Cat Records. George is pre-deceased by his parents, George and Mary Winston, and is survived by his sister, niece and nephew.

This album contains no booklet.