Phil Lesh

Acting · 0.4 popularity

Age

Movies

Born: March 15, 1940 – October 25, 2024
From: Berkeley, California, USA
Website: Visit site

Biography

Philip Chapman Lesh (March 15, 1940 – October 25, 2024) was an American 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 paid homage to the Dead's 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 school's music-related extracurricular activities. Studying the instrument under Bob Hansen, conductor of the symphonic Golden Gate Park Band, he developed a keen interest in avant-garde classical music and free jazz. After attending San Francisco State University for a semester, Lesh was unable to secure a favorable position in the school's 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 college's well-regarded big band and ascended to the first trumpet chair. (A snippet of tape of Lesh on trumpet at CSM can be heard on "Born Cross-Eyed" from the Grateful Dead's 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 graduate-level course at Mills College in the spring of 1962; their classmates included Steve Reich and Stanford University cross-registrant 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 latter's return from Europe under the auspices of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Lesh was talked into becoming the bassist for Garcia's 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. ...

Works

50 films

Grateful Dead: 2015.07.05 - Chicago, IL

20157.5

Grateful Dead: 2015.07.03 - Chicago, IL

2015

Grateful Dead: 2015.06.27 - Santa Clara, CA

2015

Gimme Shelter

19707.3

Inside Scofield

2022

Festival Express

20037.2

Grateful Dead

19958.0

Grateful Dead: Anthem to Beauty

19976.8

Long Strange Trip

20178.1

Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead

19818.5

Rising Low

20027.3

Grateful Dead: View from the Vault

2000

Grateful Dead: Crimson, White & Indigo

2011

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place

20116.9

Grateful Dead: The Closing of Winterland

1978

Grateful Dead: View from the Vault

20005.9

Grateful Dead: View from the Vault III

200210.0

Grateful Dead: So Far

19878.0

Grateful Dead: Downhill from Here

19896.7

The Grateful Dead Movie

19777.1

Grateful Dead: Live at Foxboro

1989

Move Me Brightly - Celebrating Jerry Garcia's 70th Birthday

20138.0

Grateful Dead: Truckin Up to Buffalo

19895.3

Grateful Dead: View from the Vault IV

200310.0

Grateful Dead: Giants Stadium 1991

2019

Grateful Dead: Bird Song

2005

Truckin' With The Dead

1993

Grateful Dead: Ticket to New Year's Eve Concert

19878.0

San Francisco Rock: A Night at the Family Dog

197010.0

Dear Jerry - Celebrating The Music of Jerry Garcia

201610.0

Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream

20134.0

Grateful Dead: Fare Thee Well - 50 Years of Grateful Dead (Chicago)

20159.8

Grateful Dead: Fare Thee Well - Rainbows Are Real, Chicago, IL

2015

Bob Dylan & Phil Lesh & Friends – Baltimore Arena 1999

2020

Grateful Dead: All The Years Combine - The DVD Collection

2012

Grateful Dead: View from the Vault II

20017.0

Grateful Dead: 2015.07.04 - Chicago, IL

2015

The End of the Road

20016.5

Grateful Dead: Rocking The Cradle - Egypt 1978

20088.0

Grateful Dead: Tivoli Concert Hall, 4/17/72

2022

Grateful Dead: 2015.06.28 - Santa Clara, CA

2015

Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show

200610.0

Grateful Dead: New Jersey Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo - Live at The Capitol Theater

1977

Grateful Dead: Fare Thee Well - 50 Years of Grateful Dead (Santa Clara)

2015

The Acid Test

19669.0

Grateful Dead: The Making of "Built to Last"

1989

Phil Lesh and Friends: Live at the Warfield

2006

Grateful Dead: Bits And Pieces About...

2026

Grateful Dead: England 1970

1970

The Grateful Dead Movie: Bonus Songs

2004