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Garth Hudson, the wildly talented multi-instrumentalist best known for playing keyboards and saxophone for The Band, has died. He was 87.
Hudson was the last surviving founding member of the influential Americana band. Guitarist Robbie Robertson died last year at the age of 80, following drummer Levon Helm who died in 2012 at 71, bassist Rick Danko in 1999 at 55, and pianist Richard Manuel in 1986 at 42.
Hudson’s death was first reported by the Toronto Star, who cited Hudson’s estate executor as confirming the musician passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning (January 21) at a nursing home in Woodstock, New York.
He died just a short distance from the pink house in West Saugerties that became famous as the venue where Bob Dylan and The Band recorded The Basement Tapes and where The Band wrote their seminal debut album Music From Big Pink.
Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario in Canada on August 2, 1937. He started playing piano from a young age, and was classically trained in music theory, harmony and counterpoint.
In 1956, at the age of 19, he joined the Silhouettes from London, Ontario as a saxophonist. During his five years in the group he also played organ, after becoming fascinated with the sound produced by a Lowrey Organ.
Hudson’s musicianship brought him to the attention of rock’n’roll singer Ronnie Hawkins, whose backing band The Hawks would later evolve into The Band. In 1961, Hudson agreed to join the Hawks on the condition that they buy him a Lowrey Organ, and that they pay him $10 extra to give music lessons to the other members of the band.
The Hawks split with Hawkins in 1963 and toured as Levon and the Hawks until meeting Bob Dylan in 1965. They were recruited by the former folk icon for his controversial “electric” rock’n’roll tour in 1966, the same year they moved as a group to the pink house near Woodstock.
Hudson played his Lowrey organ, clavinet, accordion, tenor saxophone and piano and served as recording engineer when Dylan visited the home to record The Basement Tapes. In 1968 they released Music from Big Pink, officially changing their name to The Band.
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The album launched their career and they became one of the most successful rock bands of the era. They released five further albums before bowing out with an all-star final concert featuring Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and many others that was recorded by Martin Scorsese and later released as The Last Waltz.
In Scorsese’s film, Hudson, who was rarely interviewed, offered his thoughts on the role of music in the world: “There is a view that jazz is ‘evil’ because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest priests on 52nd Street and on the streets of New York City were the musicians. They were doing the greatest healing work. They knew how to punch through music that would cure and make people feel good.”
The Band reformed sporadically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, before Hudson began a solo career with 2001 record The Sea to the North. He made his final public appearance on April 2023 at the Flower Hill House Concert No. 6 in Kingston, New York, playing Duke Ellington‘s “Sophisticated Lady”.
