Phil Lesh

Philip Chapman Lesh born March 15 1940 is an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30year career After the bands disbanding in 1995 Lesh continued the tradition of Grateful Dead family music with side project Phil Lesh and Friends which paid homage to the Deads music by playing their originals common covers and the songs of the members of his band 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 Lesh was born in Berkeley California United States and started out as a violin player While enrolled at Berkeley High School he switched to trumpet and participated in all of the schools musicrelated extracurricular activities Studying the instrument under Bob Hansen conductor of the symphonic Golden Gate Park Band he developed a keen interest in avantgarde classical music and free jazz After attending San Francisco State University for a semester Lesh was unable to secure a favorable position in the schools band or orchestra and determined that he was not ready to pursue a higher education Upon dropping out he successfully auditioned for the renowned Sixth Army Band then stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco with the assistance of Hansen but was ultimately determined to be unfit for military service Shortly thereafter he enrolled at the College of San Mateo where he wrote charts for the community colleges wellregarded big band and ascended to the first trumpet chair A snippet of tape of Lesh on trumpet at CSM can be heard on Born CrossEyed from the Grateful Deads 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 graduatelevel course at Mills College in the spring of 1962 their classmates included Steve Reich and Stanford University crossregistrant John Chowning 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 latters return from Europe under the auspices of the San Francisco Mime Troupe Lesh was talked into becoming the bassist for Garcias 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 He joined them for their third or fourth gig memories vary and stayed until the end Source Article Phil Lesh from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30