Doors fan, pianist Winston returns

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

George Winston's first solo piano CD in three years, "Night Divides The Day," is being released this year. The album features Winston's interpretation of songs by the Doors, whom he admired as a youth. Advertiser library photo George Winston 7:30 p.m. Sunday Hawai'i Theatre $17.50-$35 528-0506 On Maui: 7:30 p.m. today, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, $10-$25, (808) 242-7469

After a solo slack-key guitar performance last year, Winston returns to Maui and O'ahu this weekend — he performed on Kaua'i last night — for a couple of spring- and summer-themed solo piano concerts.

I caught up with Winston via telephone from his home in Santa Cruz, Calif., on a recent afternoon break from work on the 40th release from his Dancing Cat label's Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters series: a disc by Martin Pahinui.

Winston's first solo piano CD in three years — of Doors covers, no less, titled "Night Divides The Day" — has been set for an early October release.

Q. I was surprised to find out you were doing an album of Doors covers.

Yeah, I've been listening to them since the day their first record came out ... '67. I was 18, and I wasn't even playing yet. But when I heard them, I wanted to play and get in a band someday. So they were the impetus. No other band could do that for me. So I've been working on it — unbeknownst, or whatever the word is — for about 35 years.

Was it tough arranging the songs for solo piano?

Oh, yeah! I didn't even know till the week before it got done that it was really going to be done.

What was tough about it?

Well, just interpreting Jim Morrison. You just really have to find your own way of doing it. You certainly can't do it his way. Only he could do that. So it was ... (searches for words to describe the difficulty, but ultimately gives up). But I loved the tunes, so what was I going to do? I kept messing with them until I got it.

What kind of Doors songs worked best, George Winston style?

The rock ones and the ballads ... "Crystal Ship," "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "People Are Strange," "Spanish Caravan," "Love Her Madly," "Riders On The Storm." So (the album) is about half rock and half slower ones.

Anything you wanted on the album that just didn't work?

Well, I wanted "Break On Through," but that hasn't worked for 35 years. (Laughs.) "Break On Through" was the one that I wish had worked but didn't, just doesn't, and can't. It's my favorite Doors song of all of them. I was working on 23 (Doors) songs (but) I listened to just about all 50 they did. Lots of live tracks ... the gamut ... everything. Every book, every video ... everything. If they were on Murray the K lip-synching "Crystal Ship," I saw it. Everything except actually seeing them live. Talking to Ray Manzarek — the Doors organist — on the phone also helped.

Were the people you work with at Windham Hill and Dancing Cat surprised to find out you wanted to do an album of Doors covers?

Not ones who know me. It's still a thematic record ... it's just not (Winston's first seasonally themed recording) "Autumn." The Doors and their first album were the main inspiration for the "Autumn" album ... just to do an album that had light and dark. So "Autumn" is kind of like my first Doors album, in a sense.

Will you be doing some Doors stuff here?

Ohhh, I'll probably do one. I'll probably do it later (in the concert), but I'll definitely do something. I've been doing their tunes live for about a year, or a year and a half.

Any solo slack-key from you this time?

Ohh, there'll be a tune or two. I'm playing a lot more American stuff ... again. I only do Hawaiian stuff about half of the time on guitar, whereas even a year ago I did 99 percent Hawaiian. That was never quite right. I just shoved the American stuff aside 27 years ago when I heard the slack-key players, and it just all came back.

By "American stuff," you mean ...

Appalachian, Afro-American, fiddle tunes, ballads.

The last time you were here, you admitted you were a bit nervous about performing Hawaiian slack-key for the first time in its own back yard, so to speak.

Oh, yeah. It's like (playing basketball) in high school and saying, "Well, I'm gonna go audition for the NBA." First of all, it's the land (of slack-key), so that makes it harder. And then there's Ozzie Kotani in the front row. I was like, "After this, anything's easy."

So looking back, how do you rate your performance?

Umm ... I'd give myself a C+. It went pretty good. Could've been better. Could've been worse.