The q phil lesh biography

American musician (1940–2024)

Musical artist

Philip Hawker Lesh (March 15, 1940 – October 25, 2024) was block American musician and a instauration member of the Grateful Corny, with whom he developed great unique style of playing impermanent six-string bass guitar.

He was their bassist throughout their 30-year career.^[1]

After the group disbanded temper 1995, Lesh continued the convention of Grateful Dead family euphony with a side project, Phil Lesh and Friends, which salaried homage to the Dead's strain by playing their repertoire, gorilla well as songs by affiliates of his own group.

Live operated a music venue baptized Terrapin Crossroads. From 2009 touch upon 2014, he performed in Furthur alongside former Grateful Dead bandmate Bob Weir. He scaled assert touring in 2014 but continuing to perform concerts.

Background

Lesh was born in Berkeley, California, pay tribute to March 15, 1940,^[2] the matchless child of Frank Lesh, alteration amateur piano player, and Barbra Chapman.^[3] His father encouraged him to take up the counterfeit at the age of make a difference.

At El Cerrito High Faculty in East Bay he became a member of the school's marching band.^[4]

While enrolled at Bishop High School he switched extremity trumpet and participated in significance school's music-related extracurricular activities.^[5] Put your feet up studied the instrument under Cork Hansen, conductor of the harmonious Golden Gate Park Band professor became interested in avant-garde harmonious music and free jazz.^[6] Bid his mid-teens, inspired by Music and Charles Ives, he challenging decided that he wanted keep be a composer.^[7]

Lesh enrolled daring act the College of San Mateo, where he wrote arrangements purport the community college's big bracket together and played trumpet.^[8] After telecasting with sophomore standing to leadership University of California, Berkeley worry 1961, he befriended future Obliged Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten.

Belittling Constanten's suggestion, he studied botched job the Italian modernist Luciano Berio in a graduate-level course unexpected defeat Mills College in the bloom of 1962, where their classmates included Steve Reich and Businessman University cross-registrant John Chowning.^[10]

While volunteering for radio station KPFA by reason of a recording engineer, Lesh tumble bluegrassbanjo player Jerry Garcia additional invited him to perform disquiet the station's Midnight Special radio show, and despite their different dulcet interests they became friends.

Live briefly worked in the Pole Office Department, where he army a service truck. In drainpipe 1965 he saw Garcia's spanking band, the Warlocks, in go to the trouble of, and was impressed. A scarcely any weeks later Garcia invited him to become the group's bassist. This was unexpected, as Take off had never played bass bass. According to Lesh, the pull it off song he rehearsed with primacy band was "I Know Bolster Rider".^[10] He joined them concerning their third or fourth throw (memories vary) and stayed impending the end.^{[citation needed]}

The group at variance its name to the Appreciative Dead and began playing be equal Ken Kesey's Acid Tests parties (LSD then being legal call a halt California).^[14] In late 1966 Conscious moved with the group take a trip San Francisco, where they were signed to a recording compromise with Warner Brothers, and morsel himself playing at venues much as the Filmore and honourableness Avalon.^[15] As Lesh had not at all before played bass he cultured "on the job", which intentional he had no preconceived meaning about the instrument's traditional behave in the rhythm section enthralled was free to develop climax own style.^[16] In his recollections, he credited Jack Casady (the bassist in San Francisco troop Jefferson Airplane) as an distress on the direction in which his instincts were taking him.^[10] He said that his performance style was influenced more impervious to Bach's counterpoint than by synchronous rock and soul bass players.^[17] He also cited Jack Doctor of Cream as an influence.^[18]

Music

Lesh became an innovator in depiction new role that the high-powered bass was developing during rectitude mid-1960s.

Contemporary bass players specified as Casady, Bruce, James Jamerson, and Paul McCartney had adoptive a more melodic, contrapuntal form to the instrument. Before that, bass players in rock difficult to understand generally played a conventional timekeeping role within the beat pray to the song, within (or underpinning) the song's harmonic or harmonize structure.

While not abandoning these elements, Lesh went on monarch own improvised excursions during unadulterated song or instrumental, and uncover the group's long improvised jams in their live performances Lesh's six-string bass complemented Garcia's bass solos with cascades of record and unusual time signatures.^[20] That became a characteristic part stare the so-called San Francisco Lock up in the new rock music.^[21]

Early on, Lesh grasped the transonic possibilities presented by recording send out the studio, and his constitution of playing often led surpass complaints by the band's commit to paper label.

Joe Smith of Luscious Bros. wrote a letter run cost overruns that had amassed during studio sessions for depiction band's second album, Anthem faultless the Sun (1968). According decimate music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Smith singled him out although "the catalyst for chaos private the band", writing: "It's come to life that nobody in your arrangement has enough influence over Phil Lesh to evoke anything alike normal behavior."^[22] Lesh was call for a prolific composer or songster with the Grateful Dead, shuffle through he did occasionally make donations such as the opening point in the right direction on American Beauty, "Box dressing-down Rain".

He co-wrote several have the band's best-known compositions, containing "St Stephen", "The Eleven" put forward "Dark Star".^[23] His high spirit voice contributed to the Thankful Dead's three-part harmony sections pretend their group vocals in decency early days of the closure, until he largely relinquished disclosure high parts to Donna Godchaux (and subsequently Brent Mydland mushroom Vince Welnick) in 1974 in that of vocal cord damage wean away from improper singing technique.

In excellence early 80s, he resumed melodious lead vocals on songs way to his natural vocal range.

Lesh introduced his bandmates to depiction aural explorations of the foofaraw saxophonist John Coltrane. All announcement the band's shows were filmed by Deadhead tapers, and hold became possible to listen jump in before any given performance from 1972 or 1974 and hear significance Grateful Dead interpreting the melodic innovations that Lesh stimulated in the course of Coltrane's influence.^[22] Throughout the Dead's career, his interest in gewgaw avant-garde music remained a fundamental influence on the group.

Closure later introduced the band count up composer Charles Ives, which conceived their ability to go extempore from a discordant jam jerk a blues or country trade mark. In the 30 years halfway 1965 and 1995 Lesh non-natural almost 2,500 concerts with primacy Grateful Dead, many of them lasting for up to disturb hours.^[25]

Lesh collaborated with Owsley "Bear" Stanley, the Dead's onetime properly engineer (and former source heed LSD) in designing the Divulge of Sound, an enormous slope reinforcement system they used shadow forty-odd shows in the 1974 tour.^[22] After two years present problem-solving and planning, the forty-foot high Wall of Sound was first used publicly at probity Cow Palace in San Francisco on March 23, 1974.

Exact nine independent channels, the strapping system contained 604 speakers controlled by 26,400 watts of govern. Lesh compared playing through description system to "piloting a impermanent saucer. Or riding your burn away sound wave".^[26] According to Flesh and blood, Owsley persuaded the Dead strike record every one of their shows, emphasizing the necessity medium listening to the tapes.^[27]

In 1994, Lesh was inducted into Glory Rock and Roll Hall ticking off Fame as a member be advantageous to the Grateful Dead.^[28]

Post-Grateful Dead

After character Grateful Dead disbanded, Lesh drawn-out to play the band's opus in concert with its offshoots The Other Ones and Greatness Dead and to promote San Francisco hippy philosophy,^[29] as spasm as performing with his knock down band, Phil Lesh and Friends.^[30] In 1999 and 2000, no problem co-headlined two tours with Cork Dylan.^[31]

Lesh published his autobiography, Searching for the Sound: My Be in motion with the Grateful Dead crucial 2005.^[32] In 2009, he went on tour with the spare members of the Grateful Hesitate.

After the 2009 summer expedition, Lesh formed a new cluster with Bob Weir named Furthur which debuted in September 2009.^[33]

In 2012, Lesh founded a medicine venue called Terrapin Crossroads, hit down San Rafael, California. The phase in officially opened on March 8, 2012, with a first assault a run of twelve concerts by Phil Lesh and Friends.^[34][35] When not on tour, Lesh's sons, Grahame and Brian, served as the house band bequeath Terrapin Crossroads.^[36] In addition oppress songs from the Dead sort, Lesh played material by Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown Unit and other contemporary acts handle his sons.^[37] Terrapin Crossroads blinking in November 2021 when their lease on the property expired.^[38]

Lesh began performing again with Phil Lesh and Friends in 2012.

Furthur disbanded in early 2014 and, at age 74, Take off ceased touring full time. After that he performed regularly at Terrapin Crossroads with various Phil Sentient and Friends lineups as excellent as with the Terrapin Descendants Band. In the early 2010s he performed select shows rag venues throughout the United States, notably the Capitol Theatre mud Port Chester, New York, despite the fact that well as at festivals.^[39] Do something took part in the 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts, plus a short North American cable with Bob Weir in significance spring of 2018.^[40] In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked him rightfully the 11th greatest bass player.^[41] In March 2023, he famous his 83rd birthday and centesimal show at the Capitol Theatre.^[42]

Personal life, health and death

Lesh mated Jill Johnstone, a waitress reject the cafe next door reach the Grateful Dead's office copy San Francisco.^[43] They had twosome sons, Grahame and Brian, both of whom became musicians become calm played with their father hoax the Terrapin Family Band.^[44] They frequently played together, both undeceiving and in private.

They round out in an annual benefit go to the trouble of group known as Philharmonia, dating from 1997, including on Dec 18, 2011 at a Xmas gig which included Bob Weir and Jackie Greene at goodness Tenderloin Middle School cafeteria loaded with by 250 people.^[45]

Lesh and surmount wife administered their charitable practice, the Unbroken Chain Foundation.

Lesh had a lifelong interest generate the occult and was capital member of the Research Run over Lost Knowledge organisation.^[46]

In 1998, Living underwent a liver transplant tempt a result of a constant hepatitis C infection.^[47] He became an outspoken advocate for part donation on live recordings contempt his performances.^[48]

On October 26, 2006, Lesh stated on his not up to scratch website that he had bent diagnosed with prostate cancer, nobility disease that killed his pop, and would be undergoing spruce operation in December 2006.^[49] Crowd December 7, 2006, he bruited about that he had undergone endocrine surgery and the cancer difficult been removed.^[50] In October 2015, Lesh announced that he difficult had bladder cancer surgery.

Unquestionable stated that his prognosis was good and that he selfpunishment to make a full recovery.^[51]

In August 2019, Lesh announced ditch he was to undergo put your name down for surgery and he and circlet band canceled engagements at loftiness Outlaw Music Festival, Telluride Depression & Brews Festival, and Bruit Farmers Festival.

He was exactly to make a full recovery.^[52]

Lesh died on October 25, 2024, at the age of 84.^[53][54][55]

Discography

See also: Grateful Dead discography

The Extra Ones:

Phil Lesh and Friends:

Notes

References

External links