PIANIST GEORGE WINSTON: ALWAYS IN SEASON

KANSAS CITY -- That George Winston phoned more than four hours late because he overslept is part of the gentle quirkiness that has become as much a trademark as his warmly melodic, impressionistic playing.

The pianist usually performs wearing Saturday morning clothes and no shoes, even in some of the most elegant concert halls in the land.

"Shoes make too much sound on the ground," he says. "I don't really want to think about the feet. I've got enough to think about with my hands."

And he names his albums after times of the year: "Autumn," "Summer" and "December," for instance.

"That's really how I thought of the music the most," he explains. "...It reminded me of certain pictures or seasons. I grew up in Montana. The seasons are really defined there."

Winston, who will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday in Academic Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University, says his audience seems to come similarly unpackaged.

"They're all individuals like me."

Audiences at Winston concerts always are encouraged to bring donations of non-perishable food. The FISH food pantry, which gives food and emergency assistance to individuals and families in transition, will be the beneficiary.

During October and November, Winston has been on a rental-car driving tour of Kansas and Missouri, stopping both in metropolises and in towns such as Hays, Kansas, and Warrensburg.

"I like to play in small towns," Winston said. "I cover the area driving and then fly out."

A couple of people travel with him, but Winston has no need of the electronic equipment many concert performers rely on.

"Basically the sound is, turn the microphone off when I'm not talking," he said.

The top concerts for him are those "when there are not too many mistakes. Or when there are good improvisation ideas. That's the best kind for me.

"The other kind would be when one of the two works.

Winston, who can only remember taking a few piano lessons, grew up in love with the pop instrumental music of the late 1950s and 1960s. Songs like the Chantays' "Pipeline" and Jorgen Ingmann's "Apache" affected him, and performers like the Ventures, Duane Eddy, the Tijuana Brass, Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed and Sam Cooke.

Like many other teenagers in the 1960s, he played in rock bands -- his instrument was the Farfisa organ. But in 1971 he heard Fats Waller for the first time and was transformed into a solo piano player.

"What I play on the piano is in the tradition of pop instrumental stuff like the Ventures," he says. "It's just that I'm a different person."

His main pianistic influence has been the late James Booker -- "not to be confused with Booker T and the MGs, although I like them a lot too," Winston said.

Booker was a rhythm and blues solo pianist renowned primarily in New Orleans.

His first album, "Ballads and Blues," was recorded in 1972. He didn't make another until 1980's "Autumn," an album that marked him as a player with a distinctive sound and began a long association with Windham Hill records.

Winston mixes both his own compositions and those of others on his albums. His music sometimes is called rural folk piano, but evades classification.

"Each musician really is their own category," he says, "but that's really impractical."

In concert, he includes stride and rhythm and blues with the late Vince Guaraldi's "Peanuts" tunes. Eighteen Guaraldi compositions are in his repertoire.

His concert forays usually are named "The Summer Tour" or "The Winter Tour," and if you've seen one you haven't seen them all. The songs are different, although sometimes a summer tune slips into the winter concert. "I want them to be completely different from each other," he says.

These days he usually also performs some slack key Hawaiian guitar music. Much of his time currently is dedicated to producing musicians who play in the solo finger-picking style unique to the Islands.

Besides his solo works, Winston's discography also includes soundtracks of "The Velveteen Rabbit," narrated by Meryl Streep, and "Sadako and the Thousand Cranes," narrated by Liv Ullmann.

Some people find their spirits soothed by Winston's music, others contend it induces naps.

I"m really just trying to do the song right," he says. "It's very down to earth...Every individual is going to experience something their own way, whether it's the sky or traffic."