Phillip Chapman Lesh
(born March 15, 1940 in Berkeley, California) is a 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 pays homage to the Dead's music by playing their originals, common covers, and the songs of the members of his band. Phil and Friends have helped keep a legitimate entity for the band's music to continue, and is viewed by many fans as the premier post-Dead band.
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PHIL LESH TICKETS
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Musical background
Although Lesh started out as a
violin player, in high school he switched to
trumpet. Studying under Bob Hansen, he had a keen interest in
avant-garde classical music and
free jazz; he also studied under the Italian modernist
Luciano Berio at
Mills College (classmates included minimalist composer
Steve Reich, and future
Dead keyboardist
Tom Constanten). While still a college student he met then-
bluegrass banjo player
Jerry Garcia. Despite antipodal musical interests, they formed a friendship and eventually Lesh was talked into becoming the bass guitarist for Garcia's new
rock group, then known as the Warlocks. He joined them for their third or fourth gig (memories vary) and stayed until the end. Lesh noticed that another group had made a record under the name Warlocks when he found their album at a store. He suggested to the other band members that they change their name.
Lesh had never played bass before joining the band, which meant he learned "on the job", but it also meant he had no preconceived attitudes about the instrument's traditional "
rhythm section" role. Indeed, he has said that his playing style was influenced more by
Bach counterpoint than by rock or
soul bass players (although 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 fellow San Francisco psychedelic-era bassist
Jack Casady).
Music
Lesh, along with
Paul McCartney,
Brian Wilson,
Jack Bruce,
John Entwistle, and
Jack Casady, was an innovator in the new role that the
electric bass developed during the mid-1960s. These players 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. In a great Dead
jam, 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 did contribute—"New Potato Caboose", "
Box of Rain", "
Unbroken Chain", and "Pride of Cucamonga"—are among the best-loved in the band's repertoire. Lesh's high
countertenor voice contributed greatly to the Grateful Dead's four-part harmony sections in their group vocals. His interest in avant-garde music was a crucial influence on the Dead, pushing them into new territory, and he was an essential part of the group and its mystique, best summed-up in the
Deadhead truism: "If Phil's on, the band's on". Also, a snippet of tape of Lesh on trumpet in college can be heard on the
Bob Weir-composed "Born Cross-Eyed."
Post-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 (one memorable tour paired him with
Bob Dylan).
Additionally, Lesh and his wife Jill administer their charitable organization, the
Unbroken Chain Foundation. The couple have two children together. Grahame, age 21, is part of the class of 2009 at Stanford University. Brian, age 18, is a freshman at Princeton University. Both Grahame and Brian follow in their father's musical footsteps, and the three frequently play together both publicly and privately.
In 1998 Lesh underwent a
liver transplant as a result of chronic
hepatitis C infection; 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).
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 entitled "Unbroken Chain," from their album
From the Mars Hotel
. "Unbroken Chain" is one of the few songs Lesh sings. This is the only book about the
Grateful Dead written by a member of the band.
On October 26th, 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. On December 7th, 2006, Lesh released a statement stating that he had undergone prostate surgery with the cancer being removed.
In March 2008, Phil Lesh did a guest voice on the Comedy Central series
Lil' Bush
on the second season episode ''"Big Pharm"
In 2009, Phil Lesh went back on tour with the remaining members of The Grateful Dead and called it The Reunion Tour. Following the 2009 summer tour Lesh proceeded to found a new band with Bob Weir named
Furthur, which is scheduled to debut in September 2009.
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Notes
- "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
References
- "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