Garth Hudson, Multifaceted Band Musician, Dies at 87

Garth Hudson, whose intricate swirls of Lowrey organ helped elevate the group from juke joint refugees to one of the most resonant and influential rock groups of the 1960s and 1970s, has died Tuesday in Woodstock, New York. He was 87 years old and the last survivor. original member of the group.

His death, which occurred in a retirement home, was confirmed by Jan Haust, a close friend and colleague.

Mr. Hudson did much more than play the organ. A musical polymath whose home workroom included arcane sheet music for century-old standards and hymns, he played almost everything – saxophone, accordion, synthesizers, trumpet, French horn, violin – and in endless styles who could at different times be at home in a conservatory, a church, a carnival or a truck stop.

He was the one who set up, installed and maintained the recording equipment at the pink ranch in Saugerties, New York, where Bob Dylan and the band recorded more than 100 songs known as the tapes of basement.

When the band became a force in its own right, he arranged the music for the group’s albums and painstakingly tweaked and polished its recordings. He added brass, woodwinds and eclectic flourishes that accentuated the band’s handmade authenticity, a quality that set it apart from the psychedelia and youthful posturing of rock of its era.

At its peak, the group was known for being a collaborative operation informed by the songwriting and barbed guitar playing of Robbie Robertson as well as the soulful singing and musicianship of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel. But critics and fellow band members agreed that Mr. Hudson played a vital role in elevating the band to a whole new level.