George Winston: Riders on the Storm
[purchase]
Sometimes a real genre-shift is all another artist needs to make their music sound shiny and new. In 2002 George Winston, contemporary pianist and mainstay of the Windham Hill label, took 13 songs by the Doors and transformed them to introspective and melodic solo piano songs. It took me a while to choose one because I really love the whole album, but I went with one of my favorite Doors tunes.
This week is hard for me just for the fact that I am spoiled for choice and can't decide among all the great tributes and special concerts out there. I've started several posts, only to be swayed by something even better… And yes, if you were curious, Japanese artists put out as many tribute albums as western artists do. In fact, one just showed up last month: Visual Kei Rock Tribute to Disney! But sadly it's too new to make our arbitrary year cut-off, or I'd be tempted to share a pop-punk Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
