Garth Hudson, founding member of the Band, dead at 87: ‘He was always all about the music’ – Toronto Star
The Windsor-born multi-instrumentalist was part of the Canadian contingent of the famous band.The Windsor-born multi-instrumentalist was part of the Canadian contingent of the famous band.The Band’s Garth Hudson was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in October 2014. The last living charter member of the Band has died.Keyboardist and saxophonist Garth Hudson, perhaps best known for his powerful, blasting Lowrey organ intro for the classic Band song “Chest Fever,” passed away peacefully in his sleep after a lengthy illness Tuesday morning at a nursing home in Woodstock, N.Y.He was 87.Revered as a key architect of the Band’s dual keyboard sound — along with Stratford, Ont.‘s Richard Manuel — Hudson played organ, piano, accordion and occasionally saxophone and trumpet for the influential lineup that also included Toronto-born Jaime Robbie Robertson on guitar; Blayney, Ont.-born bassist Rick Danko; and drummer and singer Levon Helm, a native of Elaine, Ark. Hudson was widely regarded as the group’s secret weapon, adding his own resourceful stamp to the arrangements of such Band masterworks as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “The Weight.”He also played a significant role musically in the pre-Band Levon and the Hawks as they supported rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins and assisted Bob Dylan when he famously — and controversially — transitioned from acoustic folk to polarizing rock in the mid ‘60s.And when Dylan was convalescing from a serious motorcycle accident in Woodstock, it was Hudson who set up the recording equipment in the house known as Big Pink and engineered the majority of the over 150 experimental compositions and performances by Dylan and the Hawks that comprised the notorious “Basement Tapes.”When the Band struck out on its own with 1968’s “Music From Big Pink,” producer John Simon called Hudson the “wild card” that made that album a favourite of such superstars as Eric Clapton and George Harrison.“Garth was essentially a colourist. He had an incredible palette,” Simon told the Star in a phone interview.“Levon Helm said the Band wouldn’t be the Band without him.”Hudson was an important part of the chemistry that fuelled 12 albums (nine from the Robertson era), two tours and six albums with Dylan. The Band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and inductions into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (1989), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994) and Canada’s Walk of Fame (2014).Toronto-born, Nashville-based producer and musician Colin Linden, who first met Hudson while opening for a reunited Band at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre in 1985 — and later joined them as a touring guitarist in the early ‘90s — emphasized Hudson’s uniqueness.“He was so incredibly unlike anyone else,” Linden told the Star. “And absolutely everything that he said and everything that he played was like nobody else would have or could have. I treasured every bit of time that I spent with him.”Born in Windsor on Aug. 2, 1937, and raised in London, Ont., Eric “Garth” Hudson grew up in a musical household, taking his first piano lessons at the age of five. His mother Olive sang, played piano and accordion; his father Fred was a drummer and reed player. His parents sent young Garth to the Toronto Conservatory to study piano and theory and composition, among other things.When he joined the Hawks in 1961, he was already regarded as something of a musical savant, having played earlier in a number of country and R&B dance outfits, as well as the organ in the local Anglican church and at his uncle’s funeral parlour.“He learned so many Anglican hymns, and really came from a Southwestern Ontario tradition,” said Linden. “He always told me, and you could hear it in his playing, that that was sort of a through-line of how his improvisational and compositional sense went.”The Band, clockwise from bottom left: Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson. Jan Haust, Hudson’s long-time friend, colleague and executor of his estate, who, with Hudson’s blessing, assembled and released the Grammy-winning “Basement Tapes Complete” in 2014, remembers the bearded musician as an “uncompromising gentleman” who had a great sense of humour and lived to learn.“He was always all about the music,” said Haust.Predeceased by Maud, his wife of 43 years, in 2022, Hudson left no immediate family.But he has left an immeasurable impact as one of Canada’s national treasures.Nick Krewen is a Toronto-based freelance contributor for the
Star. Reach him via email: octopus@rogers.com.To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.Sign in or register for free to join the ConversationYour browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:Account processing issue – the email address may already existSign up withThank you .Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.Check your email for details.Invalid password or account does not existSign in withSubmitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Secure transaction.
Secure transaction. Cancel anytime.
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful!
Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.
