Phillip "phil" chapman lesh (March 3 1940-present)
Phillip Chapman Lesh was born in Berkeley, California on March 3, 1940. He discovered music at the young age of four, stumbling upon a radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic. He would have an insatiable appetite for music from then on, beginning with his first violin lesson in the third grade and his eventual move to the trumpet when he turned fourteen. Bred from a family with a passion for music, Lesh's parents fully supported their sons musical ambitions by transferring him, in the middle of his junior year, to Berkeley High School, where the music program was elite. It was here, under the guidance of Bob Hansen, conductor of the symphonic Golden Gate Park Band, that Lesh began to develop an interest in avant-garde classical music and free-form jazz. Clearly a talented musician, Lesh enrolled at the College of San Mateo in September of 1958 and played trumpet in the school's contest winning jazz band up until his graduation in June of 1960.
A year later, in June of 1961, while taking an entrance exam for the University of California, Berkeley's musicology department, Lesh met fellow classical music enthusiast and future Grateful Dead collaborator, Tom Constanten. The two, angered by the music department's preference for obedience rather than creativity, dropped out mid-semester and eventually landed at Mills College in Oakland to take a graduate-level course in composition. During this time, Lesh began volunteering as a sound engineer at the radio station KPFA and while mingling around a party in Palo Alto he met then-bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia. Although the two came from very different musical backgrounds, a lasting friendship was formed. Dennis Mcnally, Grateful Dead publicist, describes the forming of Lesh and Garcia's relationship as such, "they bridged their mutual barricades of personality, and something important happened between them, a lovely flowering of trust and connectedness." Their bond was strong, and after a stint living with Constanten and working for the United States Postal Service, Lesh was coerced into becoming the electric bass player for Garcia's newly formed band in 1964, then called the Warlocks. Having never played bass before, not only did he have to teach himself, but he was thrust into the position without any knowledge of the electric bass' fixed role as a rhythm modulator. Indeed, this enabled him to work outside the normal confines of a modern day electric bass player, many years later, music critics would cite Lesh as an innovator in the new role that the electric bass developed during the mid 1960's.
Lesh played with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty year tenure, claiming the hearts of many deadheads in part due to his distinctive bass, that was sometimes as much a lead instrument as was Garcia's guitar, but also for his devotion to the music of the Grateful Dead. Lesh would oversee many of the live releases and inspect recorded archives for quality, his critical ear and avant-garde musical interest were a crucial influence to the Grateful Dead. Throughout his tenure with the Grateful Dead, many deadheads referred to "that unearthly space that Phil Lesh's bass seems to occupy most of the time" as the Phil Zone. No doubt did he establish himself as a musical risk taker from the beginning, he took his own improvised excursions during songs while still playing within the harmonic or chordal structure, something that distinguished him from many others.
Following the death of Jerry Garcia and the disbandment of the Grateful Dead in 1995, Lesh kept the spirit of the Dead alive with his solo band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and offshoots like The Other Ones, formed in 1998 which originally included surviving Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bruce Hornsby. Since it's inception, many band members have left and new members have joined, however, to this day, the Grateful Dead spirit lives on through the band Phil and Bobby now call Furthur.
For more information on Furthur & surviving band members current projects, click here
A year later, in June of 1961, while taking an entrance exam for the University of California, Berkeley's musicology department, Lesh met fellow classical music enthusiast and future Grateful Dead collaborator, Tom Constanten. The two, angered by the music department's preference for obedience rather than creativity, dropped out mid-semester and eventually landed at Mills College in Oakland to take a graduate-level course in composition. During this time, Lesh began volunteering as a sound engineer at the radio station KPFA and while mingling around a party in Palo Alto he met then-bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia. Although the two came from very different musical backgrounds, a lasting friendship was formed. Dennis Mcnally, Grateful Dead publicist, describes the forming of Lesh and Garcia's relationship as such, "they bridged their mutual barricades of personality, and something important happened between them, a lovely flowering of trust and connectedness." Their bond was strong, and after a stint living with Constanten and working for the United States Postal Service, Lesh was coerced into becoming the electric bass player for Garcia's newly formed band in 1964, then called the Warlocks. Having never played bass before, not only did he have to teach himself, but he was thrust into the position without any knowledge of the electric bass' fixed role as a rhythm modulator. Indeed, this enabled him to work outside the normal confines of a modern day electric bass player, many years later, music critics would cite Lesh as an innovator in the new role that the electric bass developed during the mid 1960's.
Lesh played with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty year tenure, claiming the hearts of many deadheads in part due to his distinctive bass, that was sometimes as much a lead instrument as was Garcia's guitar, but also for his devotion to the music of the Grateful Dead. Lesh would oversee many of the live releases and inspect recorded archives for quality, his critical ear and avant-garde musical interest were a crucial influence to the Grateful Dead. Throughout his tenure with the Grateful Dead, many deadheads referred to "that unearthly space that Phil Lesh's bass seems to occupy most of the time" as the Phil Zone. No doubt did he establish himself as a musical risk taker from the beginning, he took his own improvised excursions during songs while still playing within the harmonic or chordal structure, something that distinguished him from many others.
Following the death of Jerry Garcia and the disbandment of the Grateful Dead in 1995, Lesh kept the spirit of the Dead alive with his solo band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and offshoots like The Other Ones, formed in 1998 which originally included surviving Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bruce Hornsby. Since it's inception, many band members have left and new members have joined, however, to this day, the Grateful Dead spirit lives on through the band Phil and Bobby now call Furthur.
For more information on Furthur & surviving band members current projects, click here