Despite seemingly opposite musical interests, they soon formed a friendship. While volunteering for KPFA as a recording engineer during this period, he met bluegrass banjo player Jerry Garcia. 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. (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. 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.

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.

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.

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. While enrolled at Berkeley High School he switched to trumpet and participated in all of the school's music-related extracurricular activities. Lesh was born in Berkeley, California, United States, and started out as a violin player. From 2009 to 2014, he performed in Furthur alongside former Grateful Dead bandmate Bob Weir. He scaled back his touring regimen in 2014 but continues to perform with Phil Lesh & Friends at select venues.

Lesh operated a music venue called Terrapin Crossroads. 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.Īfter 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.

The Other Dead #5 by Joshua Ortega