Sunday, 27 October 2024
Sunday, 27 October 2024
Phil Lesh, a founding member of the Grateful Dead whose nuanced bass playing made him an architect of the band's otherworldly sound, died on Friday at age 84, his Instagram account said.
Tributes poured in from the music world and New York's Empire State Building said it would illuminate the skyscraper in tie-dye colours to honour a member of the psychedelic band known for lengthy improvisations in its live shows, which drew dedicated "Dead Head" fans known for travelling from concert to concert.
The Instagram post said he died peacefully, surrounded by family.
In a post signed by the surviving members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead wrote on its X (formerly Twitter) account: “Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more.
“We can count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development - in every sense. And there have been even less people who did so continuously over the decades and will continue to for as long as we live. What a gift he was for us. We won’t say he will be missed, as in any given moment, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us - and the lessons that are yet to come, as the conversations will go on.
“Phil loved the Dead Heads and always kept them in his heart and mind. The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon...
“There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever.
“For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago…”.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Lesh as the 11th greatest bass player of all time, though he also sang lead and backing vocals. Many fans considered him as influential as the band's front man, Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995.
"His idea - 'play bass and lead at the same time,' his notes darting in and around the melody - became as recognizable a part of the Dead's sound as Garcia's guitar," Rolling Stone said.
Variety wrote: “It is difficult to envision the oft-sprawling, improvisational work of the Dead without the sophisticated contributions of Lesh, who — like his Bay Area colleague Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and his English contemporary Jack Bruce of Cream — essentially reinvented the role of the bassist in a rock band format, in a unit that began life playing covers of bluegrass, blues and country tunes.”
Trey Anastasio, the lead guitarist of Phish, wrote on Instagram: "Phil was more than a revolutionary, groundbreaking bass player - he transformed how I thought about music as a teenager."
On Friday night, Phish opened their concert in Albany, New York with Box of Rain, the Dead classic that Lesh co-wrote for his dying father with the band’s lyricist, Robert Hunter.
Bill Kreutzmann, drummer for the Dead, wrote on Twitter: “Phil Lesh was my brother. Not by blood but still by family. I’ve heard so many of you tell me that the Grateful Dead changed your life. Yeah, well… Phil Lesh changed mine. Thank you Phil. I’ll miss you, darn it.
Formed in California in 1965, the Dead came to prominence during the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco, a counterculture movement that embraced peace, love and hallucinogenic drugs.
But the Dead's music endured much longer than that as a mixture of rock, folk, country and jazz.
After Garcia's death, longtime players Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart formed various lineups under the name Dead & Company, while Lesh opted instead to create Phil Lesh and Friends, which played until 2023.
Philip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, California, and began playing classical violin before switching to "cool jazz" big-band trumpet, his official Dead biography said.
He later studied with experimental Italian composer Luciano Berio before his friend Garcia told him in 1965 that he was the new bass player for the Warlocks, Garcia's band that was a precursor to the Grateful Dead.
Lesh responded, "Why not?"
Lesh is survived by his wife, Jill Lesh, and their two sons, Grahame and Brian.
