Concurrent with the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Dancing Cat Records in conjunction with Valley Entertainment, will be releasing George Winston’s second posthumous album "Beloved: A Celebration of Professor Longhair". This album extends his repertoire of New Orleans-style piano which George has created over many years. His "Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions - A Hurricane Relief Benefit" (2006) donated all artist royalties to help victims of Katrina. "Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions 2: A Louisiana Wetlands Benefit" was released in 2012, with all artist royalties benefiting groups working to preserve the Gulf area wetlands.

“New Orleans is a Caribbean island attached to a continent.” -George Winston

As with those albums, George combined his own compositions in the style of ‘New Orleans piano’ with covers of compositions by James Booker, Dr. John, Jon Cleary and Henry Butler. George has a long history of supporting the piano musicians of New Orleans, including contributing to the funding of the James Booker biopic “Bayou Maharajah.”

Background
Professor Longhair, commonly known as Fess, was one of George’s biggest influences and the foundation of his piano style. In 1977, George quit playing piano out of frustration, feeling defeated by his inability to emulate his hero at the time, Fats Waller. “I couldn’t be Fats Waller… if I couldn’t play Harlem stride piano, I had no business playing piano,” he said.

But two years later, everything changed. In 1979, George discovered the album "New Orleans Piano", a compilation of Professor Longhair’s 1949 and 1953 recordings. One track in particular, “Hey Now Baby,” reignited his passion. “He was the reason I began playing again… when I heard his album "New Orleans Piano", especially his beautiful track ‘Hey Now Baby,’ I knew I had to start playing again. That I thought I could do,” George reflected. In 1985, George’s Dancing Cat label released Rock n Roll Gumbo, an album of Professor Longhair’s recordings. Now, with this album, the story comes full circle—honoring the artist who inspired him to return to the piano.

Beloved contains seven George Winston original songs inspired by Professor Longhair (Henry Byrd), along with covers of seven Fess songs, including “Ball the Wall”, “Tipitina”, and “How Long Has That Train Been Gone”, plus a cover of Earl King’s “Big Chief” which was released as a single in advance of the album.

Although George is better known for his melodic style of folk piano, this album showcases George’s love of Fess and the New Orleans piano style. George titled this album Beloved, as Fess was beloved and inspirational to George and to so many others who heard him.