The one, the only Garth Hudson.

@bdp24 

"The only other Rock band keyboardist I've heard who imo plays on the same level as Garth is Terry Adams of NRBQ."

Maybe this is a dumb question, but what do you mean, exactly, by "the same level"? Technical? Emotional? Conceptual? 

When Music From Big Pink came out, I bought it unheard due to their association with Dylan. At first, I was taken aback by how different it was from what I was used to listening to. Before long, it had grown on me and I absolutely loved it

When their second album came out, I was floored by how good it was. The Band carved out their own category of music that no one has come close to since.

In the last band I was in before hanging it up, we played a knock-off of their The Shape I'm In.

Garth is truly a musical treasure.

If you're an instagram user and Garth Hudson fan, there's a very short video of Hudson playing Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady". It's a recent video. The instagram handle is @the_band_official. He plays the song with a Monkish touch, imho. You can also see the video at @stereogum.

@bdp24

Yeah Bill, especially that of Richard Manuel, whose suicide brought me to tears. The only death of a musician I’ve cried about.

I was lucky, so to speak, to see The Band at the Columbus Agora the night, or two, before Manuel committed suicide. Maybe it was a week….cannot remember exactly. I was shocked when I heard the news, but knew then and there, there would never be another chance to see them again. Even without Robbie.

And, for me, that night, Garth was the highlight. Special person and musician.

@minkwelder: Music From Big Pink left me bewildered when it came out. At that time (Summer 1968) I was into power trios and similar kinds of music, and didn’t know what to make of Big Pink, couldn’t relate to it in the slightest. And that disturbed me; all the smartest people I knew loved the album, so I kept my inability to understand it to myself ;-) .

Then in the spring of ’69 my teen combo got a gig opening for The New Buffalo Springfield (drummer/singer Dewey Martin the only remaining member from the group’s original lineup. Bobby’s brother Randy Fuller was playing bass and singing harmony) at a local San Jose High School. I intently watched and listened as they started their set, and was amazed at how good they sounded (this after seeing & hearing The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Cream, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, The Electric Flag, the doors, The Airplane and Dead, Quicksilver, Them with Van Morrison, dozens of others).

None of the four members seemed to be doing much, but the music sounded SO good. There came a point in their set when I had an actual epiphany---I suddenly understood the concept of ensemble playing: every instrument and voice playing and singing in service to the song, each part played in relation to that of another member. I listened to Big Pink when I got home, and the album now made complete sense to me. Though many view The Band’s second s/t (brown) album as their best, I consider Big Pink at least it’s equal. I have come to deeply love it, and continue to listen to it often.

That single event was a fork in the road for me, one that led to a very different taste in music. I saw Cream and Hendrix a second time after that, and was utterly bored. I heard no music, only empty displays of gratuitous technical virtuosity. Yawn ;-) ..