Author: johnnydark

A QUIET REVOLUTION: The Story of Windham Hill Records

Filmmaker Tal Skloot has recently announced a campaign to fund the completion of a feature documentary on the history, achievements, and groundbreaking sounds of Windham Hill Records. Will Ackerman, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Mike Marshall, Alex De Grassi and many others are participating and are interviewed on camera. The award-winning filmmaker has produced over 25 documentaries. He knows and loves the music and personalities who made it.

If funded, the film will be available for streaming, download, and DVD. Additionally, funders can select posters and t-shirts, as well as special experiences like a visit to Will Ackerman’s Imaginary Road Studios, sessions with Alex De Grassi, a song by Phil Aaberg, and more.

Click through to the Kickstarter campaign, to help fund the completion of the film and select rewards: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/124339209/a-quiet-revolution-the-story-of-windham-hill-records/description

“Eastern Montana”, the first in a series of posthumous releases from acclaimed solo pianist George Winston, was inspired by the surroundings of his childhood growing up in Miles City and Billings during the 1950s. 

The single Dusk at the Fork in the Road is out today, with the full album scheduled for release on August 30, 2024.

Stream, pre-order the CD, or pre-save here: https://lnk.to/winston-dusk

It is with great sadness that I must report on the passing of pianist, composer, producer and philanthropist George Winston. His Facebook page was updated today to report his passing with the following message:

We are deeply saddened to share the news that George Winston has passed away 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.

The family of George Winston will hold a private memorial service. For donations in memory of George Winston, please visit: 

Feeding America:
https://tinyurl.com/GeorgeWinstonFeedingAmerica

City Of Hope Cancer Center:
https://tinyurl.com/GeorgeWinstonCityOfHope

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:
https://tinyurl.com/GeorgeWinstonSloanKettering

William Ackerman – Positano Songs

Arriving March 4, 2022 is a new album, Positano Songs from William Ackerman, the guitarist, producer and founder of Windham Hill records. So much Ackerman-produced music exists to evoke a place, whether that be the Montana countryside or a trip to Philadelphia, grounding music in a place evokes both nostalgia and a timelessness that is hard to resist, and has been an important component in developing Ackerman’s and Windham Hill’s ardent fan base.

Will’s music is most closely associated with New England and northern California where he lived and founded his label. But it’s clear that Positano, Italy is a place as close to his heart as any. The album is filled with love songs to the people and places in the town where he has spent so much time, made lifelong friends and married his bride.

Early fans often think of Ackerman as a solo artist because of the distinctive voice of his albums, but since Passage each of his albums has featured important collaborations. But of course the impulse to work with others has been clear from the beginning as a producer and more recently as a member of FLOW (with Fiona Joy, Lawrence Blatt and Jeff Oster) and the Grammy-nominated Brothers (with Jeff Oster and Tom Eaton). Indeed, this is the first new album of original songs since 2011’s New England Roads. On Positano Songs, only the opening track Nighttime in the Chapel is a solo piece. Ackerman’s compositions are sensitively supported and in conversation with some of his closest collaborators over the decades: Charlie Bisharat, violin; Noah Wilding, voice; Jeff Oster, Flugelhorn; Eugene Friesen, cello; Tom Eaton, piano and bass.

The sample songs (which vary between Apple Music and Bandcamp) reveal a man who sounds relaxed and at peace while still contemplative. Fans of both his quietly tense work like “Impending Death of the Virgin Spirit” and gentler songs performed with FLOW will find every note feels like home, or at least home away from home, especially if that home is our own Positano.

Positano Songs is scheduled for release on March 4, 2022, and will be available on Bandcamp, Apple Music and Amazon. You can find all current sources here: https://lnk.to/positanosongs.

March 4th, 2022 is the official release date and it will be available on all major streaming platforms.

A vinyl issue is scheduled for sometime in 2022, at a date yet to be announced.  

New Bandcamp page from Will Ackerman lets you buy The Gathering samplers and selected Ackerman albums https://williamackerman.bandcamp.com/

For many years, Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton have been producing new music at Imaginary Road Studios. The output is huge and varied, but will feel familiar to fans of Windham Hill Records and Narada, but with fresh names, faces and compositions. Inspired by his own classic Windham Hill samplers, Ackerman has been releasing samplers from Imaginary Road under the name “The Gathering,” and the compilation downloads and CDs will introduce you to new artists and new worlds of music.

The Gathering CDs have been tough to come by recently, but now a new online Bandcamp shop makes all four compilations easy to sample and purchase on CD.

With artists like Masako, Jeff Oster, FLOW, Fiona Joy Hawkins, Kathryn Kaye, Todd Boston, Lawrence Blatt, and of course Ackerman himself, you’re sure to discover favorite new artists, and of course enjoy the sampler on its own merits as a walk through contemporary instrumental music.

From Ackerman: “Finally, my store is up and running! I am excited about it for a lot of reasons, but particularly I wanted to let you all know about THE GATHERING CDs. When I owned Windham Hill Records I created collections that I called “ Windham Hill Samplers.” These featured one piece off of every record we released within a year so that people could get acquainted with a group of brilliant new musicians. Likewise, THE GATHERING albums offer the music of a new generation of musicians I have produced. I am sure you will love being introduced to many of these brilliant new musicians. I also have a few of my own albums at the store now and there will be more released soon. https://williamackerman.bandcamp.com/

New Dual SHM CD Edition from Japan’s Belle Antique Records

2019 sees a new CD release of Shadowfax’s Watercourse Way. The Japanese label Belle Antique includes both the original Passport Records edition, and the remastered Windham Hill edition, including original artwork replicas. The CDs can be found at CD Japan.

This comes after just months after the label released “Live at the Wise Fool’s Club” a double live CD recorded in 1978.