Garth Hudson, the multi-instrumentalist wizard of The Band, the first Canadian group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has died. He was 87.
Hudson’s death was confirmed by his friend, Jan Haust, to The Canadian Press, as well as by a post from The Band’s Facebook page. According to social media posts related to the group, he had resided in an assisted living facility in New York state in recent years.
He was the last of the five members who would comprise The Band to join, entering the picture in their formative years as the group backed the Canadian bar-hopping outfit of Arkansas-born showman Ronnie Hawkins.
Leaving Hawkins for greener pastures in the United States, they would eventually back Bob Dylan on a raucous 1966 world tour — when they were called The Hawks — before launching their own recording career in 1968.
Hudson was the only …