Phil Lesh

Biography

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 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. ... Source: Article "Phil Lesh" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

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Gimme Shelter

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The End of the Road

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The Grateful Dead Movie

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Grateful Dead: View from the Vault

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Grateful Dead: View from the Vault II

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Grateful Dead: Ticket to New Year's Eve Concert

Self - Bass

Grateful Dead: So Far

Self (archive footage)

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

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Grateful Dead: View from the Vault III

Grateful Dead: Bits And Pieces About...

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Grateful Dead: The Closing of Winterland

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Grateful Dead: Truckin Up to Buffalo

San Francisco Rock: A Night at the Family Dog

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

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Grateful Dead: View from the Vault IV

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Grateful Dead Meet-Up 2022

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Grateful Dead: 2015.06.27 - Santa Clara, CA

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Grateful Dead: 2015.06.28 - Santa Clara, CA

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Grateful Dead: 2015.07.03 - Chicago, IL

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Grateful Dead: 2015.07.04 - Chicago, IL

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Grateful Dead: 2015.07.05 - Chicago, IL

Inside Scofield

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

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Grateful Dead: View from the Vault

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Dear Jerry - Celebrating The Music of Jerry Garcia

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Long Strange Trip

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Rising Low

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Grateful Dead: Downhill from Here

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Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream

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

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

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

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Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show

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Grateful Dead: Anthem to Beauty

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Grateful Dead: Rocking The Cradle - Egypt 1978

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Festival Express

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The Acid Test

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Grateful Dead: Dead Ahead

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Grateful Dead - Giants Stadium 1991

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Grateful Dead: Crimson, White & Indigo

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Truckin' With The Dead

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Grateful Dead: Live at Foxboro

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Bob Dylan & Phil Lesh & Friends – Baltimore Arena 1999

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Phil Lesh and Friends: Live at the Warfield

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Grateful Dead: The Making of "Built to Last"

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Grateful Dead: Bird Song

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Grateful Dead: All The Years Combine - The DVD Collection

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Grateful Dead