SALT LAKE CITY — Pianist and Grammy Award winner George Winston will be bringing some New Orleans flair to the State Room in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
Winston said audiences can expect musical selections from his "Autumn" and "December" albums, his New Orleans-styled rhythm and blues songs, as well as some Vince Guaraldi works inspired by the Peanuts animated cartoons.
A fan of animation, Winston said he watched the very first broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in December 1965 and it inspired his early piano years.
"The song 'Linus and Lucy' just drove me crazy," Winston said. "The next day I was visiting the record store and I saw the soundtrack up on the wall, and I said, 'I've got to have that song.' I took it home and played 'Linus and Lucy' about a hundred times on the record player."
Winston chuckled and said, "It turns out I wasn’t the only one."
The pianist's enthusiasm for Guaraldi never diminished. Winston said he has covered about 60 of Guaraldi's piano arrangements over the years — whether Charlie Brown songs or otherwise.
"I just love his songs," Winston said.
The Salt Lake City performance continues the pianist's comeback from an emergency bone marrow transplant that took him off the piano stage for months.
During a Sandpoint, Idaho, performance in 2012, Winston was unable to finish his concert and was later diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome at City of Hope National Medical Center near Los Angeles.
Each of the 15 songs on Winston's 2017 album, "Spring Carousel - A Cancer Research Benefit," were written and composed by Winston during his time at City of Hope.
"I was half a block from the auditorium where I had access to a piano, so I was practicing for when I started touring again," Winston said. "Now, I’m not a composer by temperament, but things happen sometimes. These songs just kind of all happened over the time I was at the City of Hope — on the piano, night after night."
All proceeds from sales of "Spring Carousel - A Cancer Research Benefit" will be donated to City of Hope.
Winston said, "These songs came together, and it would not have happened without City of Hope — both their treatment and their piano."
Note: Winston's Salt Lake City concert will support Crossroads Urban Center, a local food bank, and those attending the performance are encouraged to bring a donation of canned food, according to thestateroom.com.
The State Room is a 21 and older venue.
If you go ...
What: "An Evening with George Winston"
Where: The State Room, 638 S. State St.
When: Tuesday, Oct. 3, 8 p.m.
How much: $30
Web: www.thestateroom.com/calendar/george-winston
Email: jhale@deseretnews.com