Garth Hudson dead at 87 - was last living member of The Band

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Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.

a truly great musician has left us. from the AP:

Garth Hudson, the Band’s virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician has died at age 87.

Hudson was the eldest and last surviving member of the influential group that once backed Bob Dylan. His death was confirmed Tuesday by The Canadian Press, which cited Hudson’s friend, Jan Haust. Additional details were not immediately available. Hudson had been living in a nursing home in upstate New York.

A rustic figure with an expansive forehead and sprawling beard, Hudson was a classically trained performer and self-educated Greek chorus who spoke through piano, synthesizers, horns and his favored Lowrey organ. No matter the song, Hudson summoned just the right feeling or shading, whether the tipsy clavinet and wah-wah pedal on “Up on Cripple Creek,” the galloping piano on “Rag Mama Rag” or the melancholy saxophone on “It Makes No Difference.”

Robertson, the band’s guitarist and lead songwriter, died in 2023 after a long illness. Keyboardist-drummer Richard Manuel hung himself in 1986, bassist Rick Danko died in his sleep in 1999 and drummer Levon Helm died of cancer in 2012. The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Formed in the early 1960s as a backing group for rocker Ronnie Hawkins, the Band was originally called The Hawks and featured the Arkansas-born Helm and four Canadians recruited by Helm and Hawkins: Hudson, Danko, Manuel and Robertson.

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I'm going to put on "The Last Waltz" tonight and think about one of my favorite bands. They're all gone now. but the music lives forever.
 


Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.

a truly great musician has left us. from the AP:

Garth Hudson, the Band’s virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician has died at age 87.

Hudson was the eldest and last surviving member of the influential group that once backed Bob Dylan. His death was confirmed Tuesday by The Canadian Press, which cited Hudson’s friend, Jan Haust. Additional details were not immediately available. Hudson had been living in a nursing home in upstate New York.

A rustic figure with an expansive forehead and sprawling beard, Hudson was a classically trained performer and self-educated Greek chorus who spoke through piano, synthesizers, horns and his favored Lowrey organ. No matter the song, Hudson summoned just the right feeling or shading, whether the tipsy clavinet and wah-wah pedal on “Up on Cripple Creek,” the galloping piano on “Rag Mama Rag” or the melancholy saxophone on “It Makes No Difference.”

Robertson, the band’s guitarist and lead songwriter, died in 2023 after a long illness. Keyboardist-drummer Richard Manuel hung himself in 1986, bassist Rick Danko died in his sleep in 1999 and drummer Levon Helm died of cancer in 2012. The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Formed in the early 1960s as a backing group for rocker Ronnie Hawkins, the Band was originally called The Hawks and featured the Arkansas-born Helm and four Canadians recruited by Helm and Hawkins: Hudson, Danko, Manuel and Robertson.

--------

I'm going to put on "The Last Waltz" tonight and think about one of my favorite bands. They're all gone now. but the music lives forever.

What an amazing (and dysfunctional) group.
 





Somewhat off topic, but I went to the "Life is a Carnival" tribute to Robbie Robertson in LA in October and it was an awesome show. It was filmed by Martin Scorsese - excited for that release (whenever it ends up being)
 





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