A great has died

The absolute end of an era, how lucky we all are to have lived amongst them while they worked their magic. THE BAND. Enjoy the music

That was one special group of players and what a repertoire!

The "brown album" has long been a desert island disc for me.

RIP Garth Hudson The Band one of the greatest and most underrated bands in rock history.

Saw The Band live twice, first In Central Park at a Wollman Rink concert. 
Garth’s extended intro to Chest Fever went on and on, to universal delight. Next at Watkins Glen with The Allmans and The Dead. Absolutely love their music!  The Brown album is on my desert island list. 

Wow

Garth Hudson was my favorite musician in my favorite Band.  I saw them first at the Before the Flood concert with Dylan in LA, then 5 times on the farewell tour, including the closer Thanksgiving Day in SF at The Last Waltz.  I like to say that there's 50 concerts in my Top 5 - here's 6 of them!

I was also fortunate enough to see several post-Robbie versions, including the Cate Brothers tour, after adding Jim Weider, and then replacing Richard Manuel with Richard Bell.  Not relevant to Garth, but I add here the Helm/Danko acoustic duo concert - another top 5.

Through it all, Garth made 1 band into several.  Here's his credits from the Brown Album – organ, clavinet, piano, accordion, melodica, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones, slide trumpet.  Wikipedia also includes bass pedals, but I'm assuming those were part of his Lowrey Festival organ. 

There are very, very few concert moments more exciting than when Levon would pick up the mandolin, Richard Manuel shift to drums, and Garth to piano.  Though Rick Danko taking Garth's seat at the organ so that he could fiddle and play the bass pedals was an added treat!