Garth Hudson obituary
Creative organist with the band, the rock group that transformed how their peers perceived music. Garth Hudson obituary
Garth Hudson in Toronto, 2010. Each of the five musicians in the band made a unique contribution—Hudson, an enigmatic figure partially obscured by his organ console, added an air of mystery to their sound. Photograph: The Canadian Press/Alamy.
Garth Hudson, who passed away at the age of 87, had a high forehead and a long, bushy beard that evoked the image of a country preacher or a rustic intellectual, hinting early on that he was set to bring something unique to the rock music scene of the 1960s. As the organist for the Hawks, who famously backed Bob Dylan during a notable series of concerts before evolving into the Band, he appeared and sounded like a character from another era, or perhaps a blend of various ages and cultures woven together in a magical way.
The Band’s first album, Music from Big Pink, released in 1968, showcased a collaborative process where each of the five musicians—four Canadians and one American—contributed distinctively and equally. Levon Helm, the drummer, stirred memories of the old South. Robbie Robertson played guitar with a rare, precise economy. Rick Danko, the bassist, captured the warmth of backporch music-making. Richard Manuel, the pianist, sang with a poignant fragility. And Hudson, an enigmatic presence partially obscured behind his organ console, infused the music with an air of mystery.
Born in Windsor, Ontario, Hudson came from a musical family. His mother, Olive (née Pentland), was a pianist and singer, while his father, Fred Hudson, a farm inspector, played drums, woodwinds, and piano. After the family relocated to London, situated between lakes Erie and Huron, Garth began piano lessons that eventually led him to classical music studies at Medway High School and the University of Western Ontario. However, he grew frustrated with the restrictive curriculum and dropped out after just one year.
Instead, he started playing the saxophone with local rock and roll bands. However, it was his purchase of a Lowrey electric organ, which produced sounds quite different from the more commonly used Hammond instrument, that gave his work an immediate uniqueness.
In 1961, Ronnie Hawkins, a popular Arkansas singer in Canadian clubs, reached out to Hudson to join his band, the Hawks, which already included Helm, Manuel, Danko, and Robertson. At first glance, Hudson—who was three or four years older than the rest—seemed like an unlikely fit, a somewhat out-of-place figure in the lively bars where they performed. “Garth looked jazz-musician cool, or like someone who hadn’t been out in broad daylight for ages,” Robertson noted in his autobiography.
Hudson brought a unique background to the group of young rock’n’rollers, having played the organ in his uncle’s funeral home, along with a broader perspective shaped by his knowledge of classical music and jazz. This diverse experience proved valuable as they became Dylan’s collaborators on worldwide tours, during which the singer alienated many of his longtime fans by changing his musical style.
In 1966, Dylan addressed a restless crowd at the Royal Albert Hall in London, declaring, “This is American music.” Meanwhile, in 1967, the Band was crafting a unique blend of American music in a house known as Big Pink, located just outside Woodstock in upstate New York. Together with Dylan, they created the informal recordings that would later be referred to as the Basement Tapes. Without him, they produced an album that would significantly influence the musical perspectives of many of their notable contemporaries, including George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Their debut album, Music from Big Pink, along with their second album, titled The Band, catapulted them to fame and success. These works showcased how Hudson contributed unexpected yet essential textures to songs like I Shall Be Released and King Harvest (Will Surely Come). Concertgoers were captivated by a group of musicians who achieved a remarkable balance, blending virtuosity with a humility and dignity that was rare in rock and roll. Their versatility appeared limitless: Helm would strum a mandolin, Danko would play the fiddle, Manuel would switch to the drums, and Hudson would occasionally pick up a saxophone for a brief but unforgettable solo.
By the time Martin Scorsese captured their final performance in The Last Waltz in 1976, the Band was already facing significant internal strife. Addictions had taken a toll on their cohesion, and Robinson, the most driven member, had taken on a larger role in both organization and creativity, creating a permanent divide with Helm. After Robertson’s departure and the loss of his songwriting contributions, the Band regrouped to tour and record throughout the 1980s, enduring the subsequent losses of Manuel in 1986, Danko in 1999, and Helm in 2012.
Hudson released a solo album titled The Sea to the North in 2001, followed by Live at the Wolf, a collaboration with his wife, actress and singer Maud Hudson, in 2005. In 2010, he put out Garth Hudson Presents a Canadian Celebration of the Band, featuring artists like Neil Young, the Cowboy Junkies, and Mary Margaret O’Hara. Highly respected among his peers, he contributed as a guest on many recordings, including those of Emmylou Harris and Leonard Cohen. His later solo piano performances showcased his ability to navigate a wide range of styles, from Professor Longhair’s New Orleans rhumboogie to Thelonious Monk’s intricate bebop, all while maintaining his own unique pace.
In 1978, wildfires destroyed Hudson’s ranch in Malibu, which housed a recording studio. He faced bankruptcy multiple times in the years that followed. In 2013, a landlord auctioned off the contents of a loft in upstate New York that had been used for storage and had gone unpaid for seven years; among the items were handwritten sheet music and an uncashed royalty check for $26,000 from 1979.
Maud, who he married in the early 1970s and often performed with, passed away in 2022.
Eric Garth Hudson, musician, born 2 August 1937; died 21 January 2025.
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