Pianist George Winston says that when he plays, he needs a listener -- preferably a human one.
"I don't play for cats and trees," Winston said during a telephone interview from El Cajon, Calif. "I do know some people do, though. But I need an audience comprised of my own species."Then he adds, "When I practice, however, I don't want anyone around. So that's the difference."
Winston will play Abravanel Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 20. The music will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at all ArtTix outlets or by calling 355-ARTS (2787).
Early in his career, Winston, like his Windham Hill record label counterpart Jim Brickman, just wanted to play music. But unlike Brickman, Winston considers himself a solo instrumental player.
"I just want to play tunes for people," Winston said in his hospitable Eastern Montana accent. "It didn't matter if I was playing for a couple of friends or a lot of people in a concert hall. I just wanted to play. The career thing just sort of happened. But to tell you the truth, if this wasn't my career, I'd still be playing somewhere."
Early on, Winston was inspired by the pop-instrumental hits of 1950s radio -- Floyd Cramer, the Ventures, Booker T. & the MGs. . . . From there, he moved into folk music, which included folk piano. He named Teddy Wilson, Thomas "Fats" Waller and two late rhythm & blues pianists, Professor Longhair and James Booker, as his mentors.
"Then there was Henry Butler," Winston remembered. "Boy, I studied him for 14 years. He can really play. And to see him play live, man, he's wonderful."
Many people also say that about Winston, who is considered one of the forefathers of the Americana piano sound. "Actually, that style is a reaction to the New Orleans style I heard with Professor Longhair. I wanted to be more melodic."
Lately, Winston has been poring over the R & B and stride piano styles of Wilson and Waller, in an attempt to get back to his roots. "My next album will be an album of slow dance and rhythm and blues tunes."
Winston's first recording was a blues album called "Ballads and Blues," released in 1972. His next was eight years later, the definitive "Autumn." His follow-up 1982 album was "Winter Into Spring," which gave way to "December" later that year.
After a nine-year wait, Winston released "Summer." That was followed by the 1994 album "Forest" and the 1996 tribute to jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, "Linus & Lucy." "I'm a jazz traditionalist. But I don't consider myself a jazz pianist. I did 'Linus & Lucy' because I really loved what I heard when I first heard Vince Guaraldi play.
"My main inspirations actually come from the seasons. They are spiritual and physical to me."
Winston's newest release is "Plains," an album that was originally going to the second half of "Forest." Winston had wanted to contrast the two regions.
"When 'Plains' took on a life of its own," he said, "I began drawing on my childhood memories of Montana. In many ways, even on my earlier albums, with the season themes, the plains are a deep inspiration for everything I do."
Included on "Plains" is a piano rendition of a Hawaiian slack-key guitar piece, "No Ke Ano Ahiahi." Winston said he envisioned people in Hawaii looking out into the vastness of the oceans, which, to him, was the same as looking out over the plains of Montana at sundown.
Slack-key guitar is another dimension to Winston's life -- literally. His record label, Dancing Cat, has recorded more than a dozen Hawaiian slack-key guitarists. "It's not steel guitar," Winston emphasized. "It's more of a finger style sound."
Winston began listening to solo guitar in the '70s and decided to adopt the slack-key style. He plays guitar regularly in his concerts.
If piano and guitar aren't enough, Winston is also an accomplished harmonica player. "My main language there is the Irish style. But, like the piano and guitar, I usually just follow the music where it goes."
By that, he means that he never stops tweaking and reworking his compositions. "A creation isn't going to drive by itself. But there are times when a work stops evolving. When that happens, I don't play it anymore. It's run its course. But if it's still working, I keep going with it."
Winston said he doesn't make any presumptions about his music, and neither should his audience. "People ask me what I want the audience to take home from one of my concerts. I tell them, 'Nothing.' I just want them to take whatever they want to take. Take whatever comes naturally.
"I keep that attitude because no one can tell a person what is good or what is bad. Whether it's rap, ragtime or Bach, it doesn't matter. If you like it, you just do."
-- IN ADDITION to the concert at Abravanel Hall, Winston will appear at Borders Books & Music in the Crossroads Mall on Wednesday, Oct. 20, from 12:30-1:15 p.m. for a CD signing. There will also be a ticket drawing during this time for free tickets to the evening's concert.