The Band’s outstanding keyboardist and all-around musician, Garth Hudson, has away at the age of 87. He used a wide range of sounds and textures to give rock classics like “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight,” and “Rage Mama Rag” a conversational touch.
Hudson was the oldest and final survivor of the powerful band that had previously supported Bob Dylan. The Canadian Press announced his death on Tuesday, citing Jan Haust, a friend of Hudson’s. There were no immediate details provided. Hudson had been residing in an upstate New York nursing home.
Hudson, a self-taught Greek chorus and classically trained performer, was a rustic figure with a wide forehead and a long beard. He used horns, piano, synthesizers, and his favorite Lowrey organ to communicate. Whether it was the sultry saxophone on It Makes No Difference, the furious piano on Rag Mama Rag, or the inebriated clavinet and wah-wah pedal on Up on Cripple Creek, Hudson always managed to evoke the perfect mood or shade.
Hudson was largely in the background, but he did have one standout performance as the sole non-singer among five artists honored for their friendship, texture, and versatility: Robbie Robertson wrote an initial organ solo (The Genetic Method) for the song Chest Fever, which featured a variety of melodies and moods before transitioning into the hard rock riff.
After a protracted illness, Robertson, the band’s primary songwriter and guitarist, passed away in 2023. Bassist Rick Danko passed away in his sleep in 1999, drummer Levon Helm died of cancer in 2012, and keyboardist-drummer Richard Manuel committed suicide by hanging in 1986. In 1994, the band was admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Band, initially known as The Hawks, was founded in the early 1960s as a supporting group for rocker Ronnie Hawkins. Helm, who was born in Arkansas, was joined by four Canadians, Hudson, Danko, Manuel, and Robertson, who were enlisted by Helm and Hawkins.
Through years of playing as unknowns—first behind Hawkins, then as Levon and the Hawks, and then as the gullible objects of indignation once they hooked up with Dylan in the middle of the 1960s—the Band perfected their trade. All accompanied Dylan on his historic 1965–1966 tours (Helm left in the middle). He broke with his folk heritage and collaborated with the Band to create some of the most powerful and stormy songs of the era, which angered some of his longtime fans but won over many new ones. Because so many people around Dylan just called his backing musicians the band, the ensemble would rename itself the Band.
After supposedly breaking his neck in a motorbike accident, Dylan was living in semi-seclusion by 1967. He and the gang landed in Woodstock, an artist enclave that would two years later become internationally famous due to the Bethel festival. They wrote and performed impromptu in an old pink house outside of town that Hudson, Danko, and Manuel shared, without any album plans. Hudson was in charge of the tape machine when Dylan and the Band recorded over 100 songs, which became known as the Basement Tapes and were only accessible as bootlegs for years. Frequently credited as the origin of Americana and roots music, the music ranged from contemporary works like Tears of Rage, I Shall Be Released, and This Wheel’s on Fire to traditional folk, country, and Appalachian tunes.
In 2014, Hudson informed the web publication Something Else! that there will be a casual conversation before to each recording. There would be stories being spoken and thoughts circulating. We would then return to the tunes.
We searched for terms, expressions, and circumstances that were worthy of being written about. Bob Dylan, in my opinion, demonstrated self-control and an enduring care for the caliber of his work.
With the austere John Wesley Harding, Dylan made a comeback in late 1967. The Band followed with Music from Big Pink, which had a down-to-earth sound so drastically different from the jams and psychedelic tricks of the time that musicians like the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, and The Beatles would all point to it as an influence. The Band then released their self-titled album in 1969, which is still regarded by many as their best and is frequently listed as one of the best rock albums ever made.
Stage Fright, Cahoots, and Northern Lights/Southern Cross, a 1975 album that garnered Hudson particular recognition for his keyboard skills, were among his subsequent releases. The Band organized the all-star concert and Martin Scorsese film, The Last Waltz, which featured Dylan, Clapton, Neil Young, and many others, when Robertson announced he was sick of live performances a year later. A complete split occurred prior to the documentary’s 1978 release due to tension between Robertson and Helm, who claimed the movie unfairly favored Robertson over the others.
Hudson performed with the English band the Call for a short time, joined Danko and Helm for a performance of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall at the Berlin Wall,” and appeared with several later iterations of the Band, which typically included Danko, Hudson, and Helm. He also helped with Robertson and Danko’s solo projects. Records by Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, and Emmylou Harris were among the other session material.
Although his first solo work, The Sea to the North, was released on the day of the terrorist atrocities of September 11, 2001, Hudson also planned his own endeavors. With his wife singing, he established The Best!, a 12-piece band, in 2005. The 2010 tribute, Garth Hudson Presents: A Canadian Celebration of the Band, included Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, and other Canadian musicians.
Financial difficulties plagued Hudson in previous years. He had gone bankrupt multiple times after selling Robertson his share of the Band. When he fell behind on storage payments in 2013, he lost one house to foreclosure and had a lot of his possessions put up for auction. Maud, Hudson’s wife, passed away in 2022. Tami Zoe Hill is their daughter.
Hudson, who was born in 1937 in Windsor, Ontario, the son of musicians, was formally trained from a young age. Before he was even a teenager, he was writing and performing on stage. However, by his early 20s, he had become tired with classical music and was playing in a rock group called the Capers.
Being the last member of the band, he was concerned about his parents’ opinion. The answer was for Hawkins to give him an additional $10 per week and hire him as a musical consultant.
In a 2002 interview with Maclean’s, Hudson described the Band as a profession. Play a theater or a stadium. It was my responsibility to make arrangements with fills and pads behind talented poets. Every night, the same poems.