Garth Hudson is 77 years old today. Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist. As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for The Band, he was a principal architect of the groups unique sound. Hudson has been called the most brilliant organist in the rock world by Time magazine and the first true rock keyboard virtuoso by Keyboard magazine. A master of the Lowrey organ, Hudsons orchestral tone sense and style anticipated many of the sonic advances of the polyphonic synthesizer. His other primary instruments are piano, electronic keyboards, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and accordion. He has been a much-in-demand and respected session musician, performing with dozens of artists and earning the accolades of many including Elton John, who has cited him as an early influence. He also plays in a duo with his wife, Maud, and in 2002 joined his friend Sneaky Pete Kleinow in Burrito Deluxe, an offshoot of The Flying Burrito Brothers. He also has his own twelve-piece band, The Best! Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His parents, Fred James Hudson and Olive Louella Pentland, were musicians. His mother played piano, accordion and sang. His father, a farm inspector who had fought as a fighter pilot in World War I, played drums, C melody saxophone, clarinet, flute and piano. Hudson was born in Windsor and moved with his family to London, Ontario around 1940. Classically trained in piano, music theory, harmony and counterpoint, Hudson first played professionally with dance bands in 1949 at the age of twelve and wrote his first song at the age of 11. He attended Broughdale Public School and Medway High School (Arva, Ontario) before studying music (primarily Bachs chorales and The Well-Tempered Clavier) at the University of Western Ontario for one year; nevertheless, he grew increasingly frustrated with the rigidity of the classical repertoire. In 1958, he joined a rock and roll band, the Capers. He was also reported to say that he gained some performance experience from playing at his uncles funeral parlor. In December 1961, the 24-year-old Hudson joined The Hawks, the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins, which already consisted of 21-year-old Levon Helm on drums, 18-year-old Robbie Robertson on guitar, 18-year-old Rick Danko on bass and 18-year-old pianist Richard Manuel. Fearing that his parents would think he was squandering his years of music education by playing in a rock and roll band, Hudson joined the band on the condition he be given the title music consultant and that his bandmates each pay him $10 a week for music lessons, allowing him to mollify his familys fears that his education had gone to waste. Revealing a bit of the thinking behind his early fears, in film, The Last Waltz, Hudson told interviewer-director Martin Scorsese: 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. Upon joining The Hawks, Hudson also took the opportunity to negotiate a new Lowrey organ as part of his package. This is significant as he was one of the few organ players within the rock & roll/rhythm & blues community to pointedly eschew the Hammond organ. The Lowrey organ offered a different mix of features and Hudson stayed with Lowrey right through Ronnie Hawkins/The Hawks, Bob Dylan and The Band, playing three different models: originally a Festival (FL) console which was replaced by a Lincolnwood TSO-25 during 1969. Later still, Hudson played a horseshoe console H25 model, as depicted in The Last Waltz. Under the strict supervision of Hawkins, The Hawks became an accomplished band and split from Hawkins in 1963. They recorded two singles and toured almost continually, playing in bars and clubs, usually billed as Levon and the Hawks. Hudson started work as a session musician in 1965, playing organ on an album by John Hammond, Jr. In 1965, they were introduced to Bob Dylan by manager Albert Grossmans assistant, Mary Martin. In October 1965, Dylan and the Hawks recorded the single Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?,” and in January 1966 they recorded material with Dylan for what would turn into the Blonde on Blonde album. Dylan recruited the band to accompany him on his controversial 1966 electric tour of the United States, Australia and Europe. (An album of Dylans 1966 performance with his band, the Royal Albert Hall Concert, was finally released in 1998.) Subsequent to Bob Dylans motorcycle accident in July 1966, the group settled in a pink house in West Saugerties, New York near Woodstock. Dylan was a frequent visitor and Garth recorded their collaborations, resulting in The Basement Tapes. By 1968, the group recorded its debut album, Music from Big Pink. The album was recorded in Los Angeles (at Capitol) and New York (at A&R Studio). Capitol originally announced that the group would be called The Crackers, but when Music From Big Pink was released they were officially named The Band. The album includes Hudsons organ showcase, Chest Fever, a song that in The Bands live shows would be vastly expanded by a solo organ introduction entitled The Genetic Method, an improvisational work that would be played differently each performance. Garth is also adept at the accordion which he played on some of the groups folk recordings like Rockin Chair from The Band, the traditional Aint No More Cane from The Basement Tapes, Dylans When I Paint My Masterpiece, and Bobby Charles Down South in New Orleans during The Last Waltz. His saxophone solo work can be heard on such songs as Tears of Rage (from Big Pink) and Unfaithful Servant (from The Band). Garth is credited for playing all of the brass and woodwinds of the studio version of Ophelia on the 1975 album Northern Lights - Southern Cross as well. This album, the first to be recorded in The Bands Shangri-La recording studio in Malibu, California, also saw Garth adding synthesizers to his arsenal of instruments. The Band released one more album after The Last Waltz — Islands — and then dissolved. By then, Hudson had married his singer/actress wife, Maud. He had his own property, Big Oak Basin Dude Ranch, in Malibu, which was destroyed by wildfires in 1978, after extensive renovations that included an impressive studio. He was active during this period as a session musician, performing on movie soundtracks and albums by many other artists, including Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison (Wavelength) and Leonard Cohen (Recent Songs). He composed music for Our Lady Queen of the Angels, a multimedia show created for the Los Angeles bicentennial in 1980. The Band reformed in 1983, with all the original members except Robbie Robertson. Richard Manuel lived at Hudsons ranch in 1978. He died in 1986. Supplemented by a rotating roster of additional musicians, The Band continued to tour. It released three albums in the 1990s. Hudson continues as a much-in-demand session player. Here, Hudson performs “Chest Fever” with the Band at Wembley Stadium.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 05:34:00 +0000