Hudson’s keyboard was an essential element of the Band's sound on roots-rock classics such as 'The Weight' and 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.'

Garth Hudson, the Band’s virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician who drew from a unique palette of sounds and styles to add a conversational touch to such rock standards as “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Weight” and “Rag Mama Rag,

Garth Hudson, the multi-instrumentalist who served as the principal architect of the Band's sound, has died at 87.