Garth Hudson, the final surviving member of highly influential rock group The Band, has died at 87. Hudson’s wizardry on keyboards can be seen in Martin Scorsese’s legendary 1978 concert film and documentary about The Band, The Last Waltz.
Garth Hudson passed away at a nursing home near his longtime home in Woodstock, New York. His death was confirmed by a close friend and collaborator, Jan Haust, as per The New York Times. Garth Hudson was born on August 2, 1937 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The son of musical parents, Hudson began playing piano at an early age. He was classically trained in music theory, harmony, counterpoint and piano. He studied Bach’s chorales and “The Well-Tempered Clavier” at the University of Western Ontario, but found classical music somewhat inhibiting.
Hudson’s classical training, however, would come in handy when he took up with a group of fellow Canadian rockers, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel, along with Americans Levon Helm and Ronnie Hawkins. The musicians would back up the latter in Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks. Bob Dylan took notice of The Hawks in the mid-1960s, inviting them to back him up for his notorious 1966 world tour. While folk purists saw the rock ‘n’ roll band backing Dylan as sacrilege, the music was outstanding.
Following the Dylan tour and recording with Bob in the now legendary Basement Tapes, The Hawks would rebrand as simply, The Band, in 1968. The group would go on to become one of the most influential in rock history. Hudson brought his polymath musical sensibilities to the genre-blending band, playing not only his main axe, the Lowry Organ, but also accordion, horns, woodwinds, and violin. He was an innovator in the use of synthesizers and clavinet, and arranged much of the music for The Band along with being a key figure in the studio.
The Greatest Concert Film of All Time
The tenure of The Band with its original members intact was relatively short, spanning just a decade. In 1976, guitarist Robbie Robertson conceived a final concert for The Band. He had just met and would enlist a rising director, Martin Scorsese, to film and direct the accompanying concert film, dubbed The Last Waltz. Released in 1978, The Last Waltz is widely considered one of the greatest concert films of all time.
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Interviewing The Band for The Last Waltz, Scorsese queried, “When you guys first started playing as The Band, you kind of shied away from publicity a lot. Talk about that, a little?”
Hudson replied by extolling The Band’s adopted hometown of Woodstock, New York, where he passed away this morning: “That was just part of a lifestyle that we got to love at Woodstock. You know, we got to like it, you know, just being able to chop wood or hit your thumb with a hammer.”
Hudson was a part of The Band’s reformation in 1983, sans Robertson. The group, with Robertson, was inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He performed with The Band until they ultimately disbanded in 1999. Hudson’s post-The Band career saw him continuing to record, perform, and teach. His final public performance took place in Kingston, New York on Apr. 16, 2023, where he delivered Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady.”
The Band’s official social media shared a tribute to Garth Hudson. View the Instagram post below:
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
