Death of Bob Dylan's collaborator, last surviving member of the group

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It's a sad day for music fans as a rock and roll icon has passed away.

Garth Hudson, founding member of legendary rock group The Band, has died at the age of 87.

A multi-instrumentalist who played keyboard, saxophone and accordion on many iconic albums, Hudson's contributions can be heard on some of the most beloved songs of the 1960s and 1970s.

Garth Hudson's cause of death

News of his death comes to us from the executor of his estate, Jan Haus, who spoke with the Toronto Star (via The Guardian).

Hudson died quietly in a nursing home in Woodstock, New York.

Haus did not provide a cause of death.

An imposing legacy

It's difficult to overstate the influence of The Band on generations of musicians.

While they were still known as the Hawks, members Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm saw Hudson performing and convinced him to join the group. (Hudson had his heart set on becoming a music teacher.)

It was when they were hired as Bob Dylan's backing band that the young musicians began to write themselves into rock history.

In the mid-'60s, The Band helped Dylan define a new stage in his career by abandoning the acoustic folk sound of his early albums in favor of electrified rock. (The process was recently depicted in the Dylan biopic A complete stranger.)

In 1968, The Band took off with its first album Big Pink music.

Featuring iconic tracks such as “The Weight” and “I Shall Be Released,” Large pink received rave reviews and impressive sales. In 2004 he secured a place on rolling stonethe list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In 1976, The Band performed a farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

The show became the basis for the iconic documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. The last waltzconsidered by many to be the greatest concert film ever made.

The group reformed in the 1980s and continued to release new music until 1998.

Through it all, Garth Hudson's inimitable organ lines added a signature element that was somehow both melancholy traditional and hauntingly psychedelic.

He was predeceased by bandmates Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Ronnie Hawkins and Richard Manuel.

Our thoughts are with Hudson's loved ones during this difficult time.