The last of The Band (19 photos)

On January 21, 2025, Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of the original lineup of The Band, passed away.





Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer, keyboardist and saxophonist for the Canadian-American rock band The Band, Eric Garth Hudson was born on August 2, 1937 in Windsor (Ontario, Canada).



His parents, Fred James Hudson, who fought as a fighter pilot in World War I, and Olive Luella Pentland, were musicians: his mother played the piano, accordion and sang, and his father played the drums, saxophone, clarinet, flute and piano.

Around 1940, when he was about 3 years old, Garth's family moved to London, Ontario, Canada. There he attended Bradford Public Schools (BPS), then Medway High School (Arva, Ontario) and The University of Western Ontario (UWO), where he studied music, pursuing his passion for J. S. Bach, but dropped out after just one year due to the rigorous curriculum.

Garth began taking piano lessons at an early age, and later played organ at a local church and at his uncle's funeral home.

Classically trained, he wrote his first song at age 11, and a year later began performing, playing saxophone and piano in a local dance band called the Silhouettes.

Garth was a virtuoso whose signature move was playing a jazz standard in the style of two pianists playing with different hands—for example, Art Tatum with his left hand and Teddy Wilson with his right. And in 1956, Hudson joined a local rock 'n' roll group called the Capers.





The group moved to the Windsor area of ​​Detroit, where there were more opportunities for work. There, in 1958, they teamed up with Canadian "Londoner" Paul "London" Hutchence to form Paul London and The Capers. Hudson played mostly saxophone and some piano in the group, in a style inspired by American pianist and blues musician Johnnie Johnson. The group achieved moderate success, recording a few songs in Toronto in 1960, and changing their name to The Kapers.

And in December 1961, noticing the talented guy, American rockabilly musician Ronnie Hawkins invited 24-year-old Garth to play in his band Hawks, which then included: Levon Helm (drums), Robbie Robertson (guitar), Rick Danko (bass) and pianist Richard Manuel.



The Band in 1971, left to right: Hudson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson

Hudson was worried that his parents might think he wasted his years of music education playing in a rock 'n' roll band, but Hawkins talked to Garth's father and convinced him by offering to let his son become a teacher and "musical adviser" to the other band members (and he did give them lessons for $10 a week). Hudson also offered to join the band if Hawkins would buy him a Lowrey organ, which he had wanted for a long time after seeing it at a music fair. Ronnie obliged. Thus, The Band was born.



And Garth's greatest contribution to the band was the sound of the "Lowrey," rather than the "Hammond B-3" that most rock musicians used at the time. One of his solos, at the beginning of "Chest Fever" on the album "Music from Big Pink" (1968), based on Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor," became so popular due to his frequent performances on stage that it eventually acquired its own title, "The Genetic Method," and was included as a separate track on The Band's greatest hits album.

Garth's talents also extended to the accordion, French horn, violin, clavinet, piccolo and a full range of saxophones. He was the primary architect of the band's sound - a blend of folk, rock, soul, country, blues and jazz that made The Band pioneers in the genre known as "Americana."



And thanks to manager Albert Grossman, they met American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and became his backing band when he "switched to electric guitar." So in 1965, at Dylan's invitation, The Band accompanied him on his first world tour of the USA, Europe and Australia, which became one of the legendary events in the history of rock music. They were with him when he was booed at the Newport Folk Festival (Rhode Island, USA), and when he was called "Judas" in Manchester (Greater Manchester, England).

After Dylan retired from concert activity in 1966, The Band recorded several tracks with him, which circulated for a long time as the first ever bootleg, and in 1975 were finally released as an album called "The Basement Tapes".



Bob Dylan and Garth Hudson

"To hear Garth Hudson at his wildest best, listen to the legendary 1966 tour with the band (still known as The Hawks) backing Bob Dylan" (Rolling Stone, 2025).

Once they had developed their own distinctive style, Grossman signed them to Capitol, and in July 1968 they recorded their first independent album, Music from Big Pink, which the Telegraph called "unique." Musically, this album was a continuation of "The Basement Tapes". The cover was designed by Dylan himself. The album had a significant influence on other musicians, starting a new direction in music - country rock. In particular, after listening to this album, guitarist Eric Clapton left the supergroup Cream and later admitted that he dreamed of becoming a member of The Band.



One reviewer called the band's debut album "a collection of stories about American philistines - as powerfully and gracefully captured on this musical canvas as the heroes were brought out in the books of Mark Twain."

Recorded without overdubs, which was highly unusual for the time, it prompted Dylan's former bandmate Al Kooper to write in Rolling Stone: "This album was recorded in about two weeks. There are people who would work their whole lives in vain and never touch it."

And music critic Ian McDonald called it "the most influential record of its time - perhaps the most influential in rock history."



The tracks written by Robertson and Manuel were performed by various members of the band - mainly Manuel, Danko and Helm. The song "The Weight" was especially successful, with its lyrics intricately refracting biblical motifs.

In 1969, The Band released their second album, which was called "The Band". Rolling Stone magazine, many of whose employees were fans of the band, wrote at the time that The Band was the only rock band that sounds as if there was no "British Invasion" or psychedelia in America, and at the same time remains modern.

In this album, Robertson, who wrote the bulk of the songs, turned to themes from American history. For example, the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", based on an episode from the Civil War between the North and the South.



That same year, The Band took part in the famous rock festival "Woodstock"/The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which took place from August 15 to 18 at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel (New York, USA).

And in January 1970, they became the second group after The Beatles to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

In the 1970s, the musicians continued their concert activity, performing with Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and other musicians. They released several more albums, but the critics were less favorable to them than to their earlier works.



Meanwhile, contradictions were building up within the band, mainly related to Robertson's desire to dictate his musical preferences to others. His attempts to become the undisputed leader of The Band led to nothing, and after a tour with Dylan in 1976, the band members, having played their last concert at the Winterland Ballroom (San Francisco, California, USA), announced their breakup.



Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson of The Band and Bob Dylan perform their farewell concert, filmed as The Last Waltz

In addition to Dylan, the concert featured musicians whom The Band considered their influencers (Muddy Waters, Neil Young) or with whom they had worked in the past (Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Dr. John, Eric Clapton). Their last concert was captured on film by director Martin Scorsese and released as the documentary "The Last Waltz".

In 1990, The Band participated in Roger Waters' "The Wall" concert in Berlin, Germany.

Hudson continued to work as a session musician for such artists as Leonard Cohen. He wrote the music for the multimedia show "Our Lady Queen of the Angels", created for the Los Angeles Bicentennial in 1980. In the early 1980s, He recorded with The Calls on one of their albums, appeared with them in a music video that aired on MTV, and can be seen playing two different keys in The Calls' video "The Walls Came Down." He played with Dylan and Hawkins at the inauguration of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, on January 20, 1993.



Seven years later, the band was reunited, but without Robertson. In this lineup, they performed many concerts and recorded several new albums, including a collaboration with Boris Grebenshchikov on his album "Lilith" (1997).

Despite limited popularity with the general public, The Band was highly respected by music journalists and fellow musicians. In a poll of musicians and critics, Rolling Stone named them one of the 50 greatest artists of the rock and roll era. They were inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame (Calgary, Alberta) in 1989 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. The band also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

Hudson was the quietest member of the band and the only one who never sang on stage or on record, but his influence was enormous. Garth was the chief architect of The Band's sound, and Keyboard magazine called him "the most brilliant organist in rock."



In addition to The Band, Hudson has contributed to film soundtracks, including Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980).

In 2001, he released a solo album, The Sea to the North, and four years later formed his own 12-piece band, Best!, and released a piano and vocal album, Live at the Wolf, with his wife, actress and singer Maud Hudson (née Kegel), recorded live at the Wolf Performance Hall in London, Ontario.

With the deaths of Manuel in 1986, Danko in 1999, Helm in 2012 and Robertson in 2023, Hudson was the last remaining member of the original Band. A master of the organ and other instruments, he was a highly sought-after and respected session musician, performing with dozens of artists, including Elton John, who cited Garth as an early influence.



"He played brilliantly, more intricately than anyone we've ever played with. Most of us didn't pick up an instrument until we were kids and became immersed in it, but Garth was classically trained and found musical possibilities on the keyboard that we never knew existed. He left a deep impression on us." (R. Robertson, from his autobiography Testimony, 2016).

Hudson and his wife had recently lived on a ranch in New York State (USA), but after Maud's death in 2022, and due to health problems, Garth was forced to live at the Ten Broeck Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing (Woodstock, New York, USA).



Eric Garth Hudson passed away on January 21, 2025, at the Ten Broeck Center in Woodstock, aged 87.

The news came almost a week after the musician's death. Ian Haust, a longtime friend and colleague of Hudson's, confirmed his death to Rolling Stone magazine. He declined to disclose the cause of death but said that Garth "died peacefully".

"I'm sorry to hear the news about Garth Hudson. He was a great guy and a real driving force behind The Band. Just listen to the original recording of “The Weight,” and you’ll understand.” (Bob Dylan, tribute to G. Hudson, 01/27/2025)

Hudson left behind a rich musical legacy that forever changed the sound of American rock in the 1960s and 70s.



Awards and honors:

As a member of The Band:

1989 — Juno Awards of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame — the main music award of Canada, presented annually since 1970, the Canadian analogue of the Grammy Awards.

1994 — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — a museum and organization in Cleveland (Ohio, USA), dedicated to the most famous and influential figures of the rock and roll era: performers, producers and other individuals who have had a significant impact on the music industry.

2008 — Grammy Awards — an award presented since May 4, 1959 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) of the United States in recognition of outstanding achievements in the music industry — for lifetime achievements

2014 — Canada's Walk of Fame (Allée des célébrités canadiennes) — a landmark of the city of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), within the framework of which the achievements of outstanding Canadians are immortalized. On the Walk of Fame, as on the similar Hollywood one, each recipient is dedicated to a personal star, built into the sidewalk. The noted merits relate to one of 5 areas: sports, philanthropy and humanitarian activities, arts and entertainment, entrepreneurship, science and technology.

Personal awards:

2007 — Dofasco Hamilton Music Awards — an award in the field of music, an award for lifetime achievement in music;

2012 — Blues Hall of Fame — a museum and organization in the United States, founded in 1980 by the Blues Foundation. It awards for significant contribution to the development of blues to individuals who performed, composed, recorded or researched blues. Ceremonies were held in Memphis, Los Angeles and Washington — the title of "Legendary Blues Artist";

2019 — Member of the Order of Canada (Ordre du Canada) is Canada's highest civilian award, established on April 17, 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Canada on the occasion of the celebration of the state's centenary (July 1, 1967) and is intended to award citizens of Canada and foreign citizens. The order is divided into 3 degrees: Companions of the Order of Canada (CC) - awarded for the highest services to Canada and humanity; Officers of the Order of Canada (OC) - for high services to Canada and humanity; Members of the Order of Canada (CM) - for excellent service in or for a particular community, group or field of activity.

G. Hudson's discography:

Studio albums:

The Band: «Music from Big Pink» (1968), «The Band» (1969), «Stage Fright» (1970), «Cahoots» (1971), «Moondog Matinee» (1973), «Northern Lights – Southern Cross» (1975), «Islands» (1977), «Jericho» (1993), «High on the Hog» (1996), «Jubilation» (1998);

with B. Dylan: «Planet Waves» (1974), «The Basement Tapes» (1975).

Live albums:

The Band: «Rock of Ages» (1972), «The Last Waltz» (1978), «Live at Watkins Glen» (1995);

with B. Dylan: «Before the Flood» (1974), «The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert» (1998);

with R. Waters: «The Wall Live in Berlin» (1990).

Solo projects:

“Our Lady Queen Of The Angels” (A Celebrational Environment by Tony Duquette, 1980), “The Sea To The North” (2001), “Live At The Wolf” (Garth And Maud Hudson, 2005), “Garth Hudson Presents A Canadian Celebration Of The Band” (2010), “Live At The Lonestar, NYC. 1985" (Rick Danko, Richard Manuel & Garth Hudson, 2018).





First video from 1996 (a peculiar group - two keyboardists, two drummers...)