Tag Archives: Woodstock Birthdays

Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

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Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

Woodstock alum
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Happy birthday
March 19, 1944
(above: Tom playing “Mountains of the Moon” at Wofford College on Jan 13, 2009)
Tom Constanten
On Wednesday, August 29, 2012, former Grateful Dead keyboardist, composer and piano instructor Tom Constanten told stories from his long career and performed as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Hall of Fame Series.
Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

Tom Constanten

Being a keyboardist with the Grateful Dead has often been unlucky.  Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (age 27), Keith Godchaux (32), Brent Mydland (37) and Vince Welnick (55) all died shortly after or during their time with the Dead. 

Tom Constanten is happy to have escaped that club.

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

Becoming Dead

According to the Grateful Dead site, “Phil Lesh was standing in line at Cal Berkeley’s music department in 1961 when he overheard a young man, Tom Constanten by name, remark that Music stopped being created in 1750 and began again in 1950. They shook hands, and became friends for life. Shortly after, T.C. persuaded Phil to apply for a special class in electronic composition at Mills College with Luciano Berio, which would become one of the touchstones of Lesh’s life. As the Grateful Dead emerged and began to create, Phil returned the favor to T.C., who became the Dead’s advisor/keyboard creative spirit, altering normal piano sounds by inserting combs, Dutch dimes, and a gyroscope into the body of the keyboard, as they recorded the masterpiece avant garde albums Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa. He joined the touring band in November 1968, and amicably departed in January 1970, feeling that he was underamplified … and in so doing avoided the curse of the Dead keyboard seat.”

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

After Dead

 From the All Music site: “After the Dead, Constanten  spent the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s mostly in the Bay Area, creating odd compositions, teaching piano, and playing shows around the periphery of the Dead scene. He composed for the theater with some success, including the off-Broadway play Tarot… ultimately winning a silver medal in the New York Critics’ Circle Poll. In 1986, he was an artist in residence at Harvard University. 

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

Neck injury

In August 16, 2016 he posted at his Facebook page, “Fell down and broke my neck last Wednesday. Just like they warned me about as a kid.
I’d driven up to the Post Office at the top of the hill to mail off a bill, and, knowing there was heavy rain in the forecast, figured it would be better to mail it off inside. I parked the car, and on the way in a bit of uneven pavement tripped me up. I fell, face first, onto the concrete.
I am so very grateful for the woman who spotted me right away and called 911.”

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

Recovery and continued touring

He has recovered and in July 2017 returned to Bethel, NY to visit the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts with his sister Susan and son Jeff.

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten

He has released five solo  albums: 

Nightfall of Diamonds (1992)

Constanten, Tom - Nightfall of Diamonds - Amazon.com Music

Morning Dew (1993)

Constanten, Tom - Morning Dew - Amazon.com Music

Grateful Dreams (2000)

 

88 Keys to Tomorrow (2002)

Tom Constanten - 88 Keys to Tomorrow - Amazon.com Music

and Moved to Stanleyville (2006)

CONSTANTEN,TOM/FOUST,KEN - Moved To Stanleyville - Amazon.com Music

As you can see from the above album cover,  Constanten has also  collaborated. Dose Hermanos is the improvisational piano duo of Constanten and Bob Bralove.

They’ve released six albums: , Sonic Roar Shock (1997), Live From California (1998), Search for Intelligent Life (2000), Bright Shadows (2004), Batique (2014), and Persistence of Memory (2022).

 

Briefly Dead Tom Constanten
Birthdays, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

John B Sebastian

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John B Sebastian

Happy birthday to you
March 17, 1944
Lovin Spoonful John Benson Sebastian
2013-08-15 Richie Havens Memorial Service @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (photo by J Shelley)
John B Sebastian

Another Greenwich Villager

The common thread to the story that many musicians of the 1960s share is that they moved to Greenwich Village in New York City to be part of its burgeoning folk scene and Bohemian lifestyle.

John Benson Sebastian didn’t have to move there. He was born there to a father who played classical harmonica and a mother who wrote for a radio program.

Early Villagers such as Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie visited his home regularly, so it was no surprise when he became part of the Even Dozen Jug Band. From that platform others observed his skills on guitar, harmonica and autoharp. Soon he accompanied artists such as Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Jesse Colin Young, Tom Rush, Mississippi John Hurt, Judy Collins, and Bob Dylan.

John B Sebastian

Lovin’ Spoonful

It was the Lovin’ Spoonful and “Do You Believe In Magic” that brought Sebastian national recognition. Here is a live performance of that song from 1965. How many of you remember wondering what that thing he was playing?

John B Sebastian

Solo Sebastian

John Sebastian left the group in 1968 to go solo and other than an occasional return to the group format (J-Band), he continued and continues to perform as such. Of course, he also continues to be in demand as an accompanist.

John B Sebastian

Woodstock Sebastian

One of his most famous moments was his unscheduled performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. After the Festival’s laborious delivery on Friday, Saturday dawned damp and the organizers faced a worrisome day.

The band Quill opened but the stage crew needed time to set up the next scheduled group. Organizers “volunteered” Country Joe McDonald and borrowed a strapless guitar (he found a piece of rope).  Santana’s awesome set followed McDonald’s rousing songs, but again time was needed for Keef Hartley to set up.

 John was living in Woodstock  and wandered to Bethel to party. A much larger party than he or anyone realized was going to happen.

John was volunteered and filled in admirably.

John B Sebastian

Welcome back John

His second moment of national fame came in 1976,  when he had an unexpected #1 single with “Welcome Back”, the theme song to the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

As part of the Lovin’ Spoonful, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

John continues to live in Woodstock, NY (“Where Woodstock is, but not where Woodstock was.”) and regularly shows up to play at Levon Helm’s Barn.

And in 2021 he helped promote the refurbished  Bearsville Studio with a wonderful video.

Also in 2021, he and Arlen Roth released John Sebastian and Arlen Roth Explore the Spoonful Songbook.

Birthdays, Grateful Dead, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Dead Bassist Phil Lesh

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Dead Bassist Phil Lesh

March 15, 1940 – October 25, 2024
Grateful Dead
Woodstock alum
…and much much more
The music never stopped
The Grateful Dead-Summer Solstice-Shoreline Amphitheatre 06/21/1989
Dead Bassist Phil Lesh
photo from: http://www.philzone.com/leshlinks/phil-lesh-bio.html

We could simply say that Phil Lesh was the one and only bassist for the Grateful Dead and leave it at that. Is there more that you need to know?

He was born in Berkeley, California and his first instrument was the violin. In high school he switched to the trumpet.  He eventually met Jerry Garcia and they became friends. Five years later, Jerry asked Phil to join the Warlocks and play bass.

Since no one had instructed him on  how to play the bass, he developed his own style based on his musical preferences such as classical music and jazz.

His contributions to the band were limited vocally and he composed few songs, but his musicianship was always an integral part of any Dead show.

Because of technical issues, the Dead’s contribution to the lore of  the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was more symbolic than actual. They felt their performance was sub-par and so that has become the description. Having said that, the show was not terrible in any sense. The Dead simply didn’t have the chance to fly that night.

Phil Lesh discussed his early influences and more in the following video.

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

 In 1995, after Jerry Garcia died, the Grateful Dead stopped as a band, but each of the members continued to play music. Sometimes together, sometimes as solo artists.

Dead Bassist Phil Lesh

Phil Lesh non-stop

Phil Lesh played with The Other Ones and The Dead, as well as his own band collection, Phil Lesh and Friends. In 1999, he co-headlined a tour with Bob Dylan.  Check the link below to see all of his credits since 1995.

In the spring of 1997, Phil and friends launched the Unbroken Chain Foundation, “a nonprofit organization which seeks to perpetuate the long-standing tradition of community service that has been the hallmark of the remarkable three-decade relationship between the Grateful Dead and its audience.”

Dead Bassist Phil Lesh
photo from the Terrapin Crossroads site

In 2012, Lesh founded a music venue called Terrapin Crossroads, in San Rafael, California. The venue officially opened on March 17, of that year.

Dead Bassist Phil Lesh

Lifer

To say Phil was a lifer is an understatement.  He continued to play regularly until his death in 2024.

Obit

The opening of NPR’s obituary began: “Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of countercultural rock band The Grateful Dead, has died. He was 84 years old. “

It continued: ““On a day-to-day basis, the psychic pivot to the Dead is Phil Lesh, the most aggressive purist, the anti-philistine Artist,” wrote Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally in his 2002 book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.“It is he who most often and most loudly demands that they dance as closely as possible to the edge of the nearest available precipice. Intellectual, kinetic, intense, he was once nicknamed Reddy Kilowatt in recognition of his high mental and physical velocity.”

Dead Bassist Phil Lesh