Garth Hudson

Eric " Garth " Hudson ( born August 2, 1937 in Windsor, Ontario ) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist (organ, keyboard, piano, accordion, saxophone, drums ). Hudson became famous especially as organist of the rock group The Band.

Life and work

Hudson grew up in a musical family, his father, Fred James Hudson, played percussion, clarinet, saxophone and flute, his mother, Olive Louella Pentland sang and played the accordion and piano. As Hudson was three years old, his family moved from Windsor to London, Ontario, where he spent his childhood and youth. He was given piano lessons, learned music theory and played the organ at St. Luke 's Anglican Church; Later he studied at the University of Western Ontario. After appearances with many smaller bands Hudson came in December 1961 at Ronnie Hawkins and became a member of his backing band The Hawks.

Hudson's involvement in Hawkins, however, was subject to conditions, he called for a Lowrey organ whose sound was to become his trademark ( the more common Hammond B3 but he also plays occasionally ), and Hawkins also had him next to his salary pay ten dollars a week, that he gave music lessons to other musicians (Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson). 1968 succeeded the Hawks (without Hawkins ) the breakthrough with the album Music from Big Pink, henceforth they were known as The Band. In his review on Music from Big Pink musician Al Kooper wrote about Hudson:

" Garth Hudson is one of the strangest people I ever met. If Harry Brooks is the gentle grizzly bear of rock and roll then Garth is the gentle brown bear. "

One of the songs from Music from Big Pink also became the song that is always associated with Garth Hudson: Chest Fever, he with a style inspired by Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor organ Intro - later called The Genetic Method - opened.

From 1975 Hudson used synthesizers. For Yamaha, he was involved in the development of the CS -80, a prototype of this synthesizer used Hudson during The Last Waltz.

After the departure of Robbie Robertson Hudson and the three remaining members of The Band in 1983 attempted a comeback. After the suicide of Richard Manuel in 1986 and the death of Rick Danko, 1999, the group split up for good. Was published in 2001 Hudsons first solo album The Sea to the North.

In addition to his work for The Band and The Hawks ( with Dylan and Hawkins ) Hudson worked for a number of musicians. He can be heard on recordings of, inter alia, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, JJ Cale, Marianne Faithfull, The Call and Norah Jones.

Publications

For publications with The Band or The Hawks Main article: The Band.

  • 2001: The Sea to the North
  • 2005: Our Lady Queen of the Angels

Honors

Footnotes

External links and sources

  • Garth Hudson's website
  • Entry at Allmusic
  • Pianist
  • Keyboardist
  • Organist
  • Canadian musicians
  • Born in 1937
  • Man
Windsor (Ontario) Electronic keyboard London (Ontario) Hammond organ Harry Brooks (composer) Yamaha CS-80 The Call (Band) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Integrated Authority File
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