Garth Hudson - Our Lady Queen Of The Angels (A Celebrational Environment by Tony Duquette) [1980] + Garth Hudson - The Sea To The North [2001]
GARTH HUDSON
Eric Garth Hudson CM (August 2, 1937 - January 21, 2025) was a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for the rock group The Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a principal architect of the group's sound and was described as "the most brilliant organist in the rock world" by Keyboard magazine. Hudson was the last living original member of the Band.
A master of the Lowrey organ, Hudson's other primary instruments were piano, accordion, electronic keyboards, and saxophones (alto, tenor, soprano, baritone, bass).[3] He was a much-in-demand and respected session musician, performing with dozens of artists, including Elton John, who has cited him as an early influence. (Wikipedia)
Garth Hudson - The Sea To The North [2001] It wasn't too hard to guess that Garth Hudson's long-awaited solo album would be a tour de force; his virtuoso instrumental talents stood out even in that legendary group of musicians known as the Band. What may surprise listeners, however, is the sheer scope of sound on this effort, with Hudson playing an intimidating range of keyboards (including pipe organ), various saxophones, accordion, melodica, and Tarogato. Each track is a sonic adventure, the hapless listener unsure of what lies around the next bend. Several centuries of music and continents seem embedded in the elegiac title track ("composition" is a better word for music of this scope), while "The Saga of Cyrus and Mulgrew" is boldly futuristic. Later years found the erstwhile members of the Band occasionally digging into the Grateful Dead's catalog, and Hudson is no exception, doing a free jazzy take on "Dark Star" on which he even offers some spoken vocals. Members of that sterling Woodstock, NY, band the Crowmatix show up here, with prominent appearances by group leader Professor "Louie" (aka Aaron Hurwitz), who co-produces. Hudson's old bandmate Levon Helm shows up as well. This is startlingly spontaneous music with a brain (a very big brain), and it's not for the faint of heart or the average pop fan. And that's a great thing. (AllMusic review by Erik Hage)
Garth Hudson - Our Lady Queen Of The Angels (A Celebrational Environment by Tony Duquette) [1980] In 1980, Garth Hudson was involved in a project with sculptor Tony Duquette, at the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry. The music that Garth wrote and played for this exhibition was recorded, and Garth released it on tape under the title Our Lady Queen of the Angels (subtitled "A Celebrational Environment by Tony Duquette") on his own label Buscador Music as EGH (Eric Garth Hudson) 770.Garth does some beautiful, haunting keyboard work. Some of it is shear wizardry in sound effects, considering the computer and synth technology available at the time of the recording. A few of the sounds on Our Lady Queen of the Angels are not instruments, but Maud Hudson and Richard and Arlie Manuel "singing" to sound like instruments, along with a variety of Californian Wren calls with stream-side and pool-side frogs recorded by Hudson himself in Malibu. In the middle of it, Charlton Heston reads a poem to Los Angeles written by Ray Bradbury.
According to the Duquette Foundation of the Living Arts, the cassette tapes are no longer available, due to a tragic fire in 1989.
Our Lady... was finally released on CD by the Canadian Other Peoples Music label in November 2005. The CD follows the original cassette-only sequence and was restored and remastered from the original 1980 recordings. (Discogs)
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