Band

The Band was an influential Canadian-American rock and roll group of the 1960s and 1970s. more...

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The members of The Band first worked together as The Hawks, the backing band of rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins from 1959 until 1963. Afterwards, Bob Dylan recruited the quintet for his history-making 1965/1966 world tour and they joined him on the informal recordings that became the acclaimed Basement Tapes.

Dubbed "The Band" by their record company (a name derivative of what the group was referred to as during their tenure with Dylan), the group left the comfort of their communal home in Woodstock to begin recording as a group unto themselves. The Band recorded two of the most important albums of the late 1960s: their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the hit single "The Weight") and 1969's The Band. These critically praised albums helped conceive country rock as something more than a genre, but rather as a celebration of "Americana." As such, throughout their career they would repopularize traditional American musical forms during the psychedelic era. The Band dissolved in 1976 but reformed in 1983 without founding guitarist and main songwriter Robbie Robertson.

Although always more popular with music journalists and fellow musicians than the general public, The Band has remained an admired and influential group. They have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Overview

Their music fused many elements: primarily old country music and early rock and roll, though the rhythm section often had a bouncy, funky punch reminiscent of Stax or Motown, and Robertson cites Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers as major influences. At its best, however, The Band's music was an organic synthesis of many musical genres which became more than the sum of its parts, and never felt pieced together. Importantly, unlike most rock music, much of The Band's catalog — especially within their first two albums — contained few songs based on traditional blues chord progressions.

The Band comprised Robbie Robertson (guitar); Richard Manuel (piano, harmonica, drums, saxophone); Garth Hudson (organ, piano, clavinet, accordion, synthesizer, saxophone); Rick Danko (bass guitar, violin, trombone); and Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar) Excepting Robertson, all were multi-instrumentalists; each person's primary instrument is listed first. There was little instrument-switching when they played live, but when recording, the musicians could offer all manner of subtle aural colors and textures to enhance songs. Hudson in particular was able to coax an impressive range of timbres from his Lowrey electric organ; on the choruses of "Tears of Rage", for example, it sounds startlingly like a mellotron. Helm's drumming was rarely flashy, but he was often praised for his subtlety and funkiness. Critic Jon Carroll famously declared that Helm was "the only drummer who can make you cry," while prolific session drummer Jim Keltner admits to appropriating several of Helm's techniques.

Read more at Wikipedia.org