Phil Lesh

Phil Lesh
Phil Lesh performing at Terrapin Crossroads December 6, 2013
Background information
Birth name	Philip Chapman Lesh
Born	(1940-03-15) March 15, 1940 (age 84) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Genres	Rock psychedelia jam jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s)	Bass guitar trumpet vocals
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Warner Bros. Grateful Dead Records Arista Columbia
Member of	Phil Lesh and Friends
Formerly of	Grateful Dead The Other Ones The Dead Furthur
Website	www.phillesh.net

Philip Chapman Lesh (born March 15, 1940) ^[1] is an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career.

After the band's disbanding in 1995, Lesh continued the tradition of Grateful Dead family music with side project Phil Lesh and Friends, which paid homage to the Dead's music by playing their repertoire, as well songs of the members of his own group. Lesh operated a music venue called Terrapin Crossroads. He scaled back his touring regimen in 2014 but continues to perform with Phil Lesh & Friends at select venues. From 2009 to 2014, he performed in Furthur alongside former Grateful Dead bandmate Bob Weir.

Background

Lesh was born in Berkeley, California, United States, ^[1] and started out as a violin player. While enrolled at Berkeley High School he switched to trumpet and participated in all of the school's music-related extracurricular activities. Studying the instrument under Bob Hansen, conductor of the symphonic Golden Gate Park Band, he developed a keen interest in avant-garde classical music and free jazz.

Shortly thereafter, he enrolled at the College of San Mateo, where he wrote charts for the community college's well-regarded big band and ascended to the first trumpet chair. (A snippet of tape of Lesh on trumpet at CSM can be heard on "Born Cross-Eyed" from the Grateful Dead's 1968 release Anthem of the Sun .) After transferring with sophomore standing to the University of California, Berkeley in 1961, he befriended future Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten before dropping out again after less than a semester. At the behest of Constanten, he studied under the Italian modernist Luciano Berio in a graduate-level course at Mills College in the spring of 1962; their classmates included Steve Reich and Stanford University cross-registrant John Chowning. ^[2]

While volunteering for KPFA as a recording engineer during this period, he met bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia. Despite seemingly opposite musical interests, they soon formed a friendship. Following a brief period as a Post Office Department employee and keno marker in Las Vegas (initially rooming with Constanten, who soon departed to study under Berio and other members of the Darmstadt School in Europe); a second stint with the Post Office in San Francisco; and a collaboration with the likes of Reich, Jon Gibson and Constanten upon the latter's return from Europe under the auspices of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Lesh was talked into becoming the bassist for Garcia's new rock band (then known as The Warlocks) in the fall of 1964. This was a peculiar turn of events, as Lesh had never before played bass. According to Lesh, the first song he rehearsed with the band was "I Know You Rider". ^[2] He joined them for their third or fourth gig (memories vary) and stayed until the end.

Since Lesh had never played bass, it meant that to a great extent he learned "on the job", yet it also meant he had no preconceived attitudes about the instrument's traditional rhythm section role. In his autobiography, he credits Jack Casady (who was playing with Jefferson Airplane) as a confirming influence on the direction to which his instincts were leading him. ^[2] While he has said that his playing style was influenced more by Bach counterpoint than by contemporaneous rock and soul bass players, one can also hear the fluidity and power of a jazz bassist such as Charles Mingus or Jimmy Garrison in Lesh's work, along with stylistic allusions to Casady. ^[3] Lesh has also cited Jack Bruce of Cream as an influence. ^[4]

Music

Phil Lesh with Tooloos at the Keystone Berkeley; December 19, 1976. Photo: David Gans

Lesh was an innovator in the new role that the electric bass developed during the mid-1960s. Contemporaries such as Casady, Bruce, James Jamerson and Paul McCartney adopted a more melodic, contrapuntal approach to the instrument; before this, bass players in rock had generally played a conventional timekeeping role within the beat of the song, and within (or underpinning) the song's harmonic or chord structure. While not abandoning these aspects, Lesh took his own improvised excursions during a song or instrumental. This was a characteristic aspect of the so-called San Francisco Sound in the new rock music. ^[5] In many Dead jams, Lesh's bass is, in essence, as much a lead instrument as Garcia's guitar.

Lesh was not a prolific composer or singer with the Grateful Dead, although some of the songs he contributed or co-wrote (including "New Potato Caboose", "Box of Rain", "Truckin'", "Unbroken Chain" and "Pride of Cucamonga") are among the best known in the band's repertoire. Lesh's high tenor voice contributed to the Grateful Dead's three-part harmony sections in their group vocals in the early days of the band, until he largely relinquished singing high parts to Donna Godchaux (and thence Brent Mydland and Vince Welnick) in 1974 due to vocal cord damage from improper singing technique. Throughout 1970, 1971, 1972, and early 1973, he would consistently sing high harmonies on songs such as “Ramble on Rose”, “Brown eyed women”, “Viola Lee Blues”, “Truckin’”, and “US Blues”. But in the middle of 1973, his vocal cords began giving him trouble and you can audibly hear his voice breaking in some recordings. In 1985, he resumed singing lead vocals on select songs as a baritone. Throughout the Grateful Dead's career, his interest in avant-garde music remained a crucial influence on the group.

In 1994, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead. ^[6]

Post-Grateful Dead

After the disbanding of the Grateful Dead, Lesh continued to play with its offshoots The Other Ones and The Dead, as well as performing with his own band, Phil Lesh and Friends. ^[7] In 1999, he co-headlined a tour with Bob Dylan. ^[8]

Additionally, Lesh and his wife Jill administer their charitable organization, the Unbroken Chain Foundation. The couple have two children together, Grahame and Brian. Both Grahame and Brian follow in their father's musical footsteps. The three frequently play together both publicly and privately, for example in an annual benefit concert grouping known as Philharmonia, dating to 1997, most recently on December 18, 2011, at a Christmas gig including Bob Weir and Jackie Greene at the Tenderloin Middle School cafeteria attended by 250 people. ^[9]

In 1998, Lesh underwent a liver transplant as a result of chronic hepatitis C infection; ^[10] since then, he has become an outspoken advocate for organ donor programs and when performing regularly encourages members of the audience to become organ donors (tracks identified as the "donor rap" on the live recordings of his various performances).

Lesh performing in May 2008

In April 2005, Lesh's book Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead ( ISBN   0-316-00998-9) was published. The book takes its name from the lyrics of a Grateful Dead song titled "Unbroken Chain," from their album From the Mars Hotel . "Unbroken Chain" is one of the few songs Lesh sings. This was the only book about the Grateful Dead written by a member of the band until 2015, when Bill Kreutzmann released his memoir, Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams and Drugs with the Grateful Dead.

On October 26, 2006, Lesh released a statement on his official website, revealing that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer—the disease that killed his father—and would be undergoing an operation in December 2006 to have it removed. ^[11] On December 7, 2006, Lesh released a statement stating that he had undergone prostate surgery with the cancer being removed. ^[12]

In 2009, Lesh went back on tour with the remaining members of the Grateful Dead. Following the 2009 summer tour Lesh proceeded to found a new band with Bob Weir named Furthur, which debuted in September 2009. ^[13]

In 2012, Lesh founded a music venue called Terrapin Crossroads, in San Rafael, California. The venue officially opened on March 8, 2012, with a first of a run of twelve concerts by Phil Lesh and Friends. ^{[14] [15]} When not on tour, Lesh's sons, Grahame and Brian, serve as the house band at Terrapin Crossroads ^[16] In addition to songs from the Dead catalog, Lesh played material by Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown Band and other contemporary acts with his sons. ^[17]

Lesh began performing again with Phil Lesh and Friends in 2012. Furthur disbanded in early 2014 and, at age 74, Lesh ceased touring full time. Since then he has performed regularly at Terrapin Crossroads with various Phil Lesh and Friends line-ups as well as with the Terrapin Family Band. In the early 2010s he performed select shows at venues throughout the United States, notably the Capitol Theatre, as well as at festivals. ^[18]

He took part in the 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts, and a short North American tour with Bob Weir in the spring of 2018. ^[19]

In October 2015, Lesh announced that he had had bladder cancer surgery. He stated that his prognosis was good and that he expected to make a full recovery. ^[20]

In August 2019, Lesh announced that he would undergo back surgery, due to which he and his band cancelled upcoming engagements at the Outlaw Music Festival, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, and Dirt Farmers Festival. He is expected to make a full recovery. ^[21]

Phil and Jill Lesh closed Terrapin Crossroads in November 2021 when their lease on the property expired. ^[22]

In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 11th greatest bass player. ^[23]

In March 2023, he celebrated his 83rd birthday and hundredth show at the Capitol Theatre. ^[24] In March 2024, he returned to celebrate his 84th.

Discography

See also: Grateful Dead discography

The Other Ones:

• The Strange Remain (1999)

Phil Lesh and Friends:

• Love Will See You Through (1999)
• There and Back Again (2002)
• Live at the Warfield (2006)

Notes

1. Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 1464/5. ISBN   0-85112-939-0.
2. Lesh, Phil (2005). Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN   0-316-00998-9.
3. Jackson, Blair (1999). Garcia: An American Life. Penguin Books. p. 74. ISBN   0-14-029199-7.
4. Ferris, Jedd (August 23, 2017). "A quick chat with Phil Lesh: Grateful Dead bassist talks Lockn' return and missing Jerry". C-VILLE.
5. Lydon, Michael (August 23, 1969). "Good Old Grateful Dead". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
6. List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
7. Sullivan, James. "Phil's New Zone", San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1999
8. Juanis, J.C. (December 7, 2012). "Watching The River Flow: On Tour With Phil Lesh And Bob Dylan (Fall 1999)". Relix.com.
9. "Philharmonia 2011: Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Jackie Greene and More". Jambands.com. November 28, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
10. "Phil Lesh Goes There and Back Again (Relix Revisited)". March 16, 2015.
11. Vaziri, Aidin (October 29, 2006). "Grateful Dead Founder Lesh Battling Prostate Cancer", SFGate. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
12. "Phil Lesh Doing Well", JamBase, December 8, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
13. "Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Joe Russo, Jay Lane, Jeff Chimenti and John Kadlecik Form New Band 'Furthur', Set Dates For September", JamBase, August 14, 2009
14. ^[ permanent dead link ]
15. Oksenhorn, Stewart (February 10, 2012). "With Phil & Friends, the Dead Live On", Aspen Times . Retrieved February 26, 2012.
16. "Grahame Lesh's Family Values". Jambands.com. March 30, 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
17. "Phil at 80: Phil Lesh Talks Terrapin Crossroads in 2012". Relix.com. March 14, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
18. "Phil Lesh & Friends | The Capitol Theatre". www.thecapitoltheatre.com. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
19. "Grateful Dead Bob Weir & Phil Lesh announce Duo Tour Spring 2018!". Grateful Dead. December 11, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
20. Kreps, Daniel (October 17, 2015). "Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh Reveals Bladder Cancer Battle", Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
21. "Phil Lesh - This past weekend we learned that Phil needs to have a minor back surgery. Per his Doctor's orders, he will need some time to rest and rehabilitate. Accordingly, and with deep regret, we must announce that Phil's upcoming performances Outlaw Festival September 7th and 8th, Dirt Farmers Festival and Telluride Blues and Brews Festival must be cancelled. A full and complete recovery is expected. Phil looks forward to performing and doing what he loves most for everyone very soon". Facebook.com. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
22. "Grateful Dead bassist's former North Bay music venue listed for $5 million". Datebook | San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
23. "Phil Lesh". Rolling Stone Australia. July 2, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
24. Kalnitz, Max (March 23, 2023). "Phil Lesh Celebrates 83rd Birthday & 100th Show at Capitol Theatre During Four-Night Run". Atwood Magazine. Retrieved November 7, 2023.

References

• Philzone.com—Phil Lesh and Friends fan site
• Parker, T. Virgil. "Phil Lesh: All in the Music", College Crier
• Phil Lesh and Friends at archive.org
• Lesh, Phil (2005). Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead . New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN   0-316-00998-9.

External links

• Phil Lesh and Friends official website
• Terrapin Crossroads—Phil Lesh's new music and dining venue in San Rafael, CA (Marin County)
• Phil Lesh on the Grateful Dead's Official Site
• Phil Lesh discography at Discogs