Month: October 2024

LOS ANGELES — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died. She was 79. 

Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Garr battled other health problems in recent years and underwent an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm. 

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.” 

The actor, who was sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during her long career, seemed destined for show business from her childhood. 

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dance lessons at 6 and by 14 was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies. 

She was 16 when she joined the road company of West Side Story in Los Angeles, and as early as 1963 she began appearing in bit parts in films. 

She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the West Side Story role. After being dropped from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted. 

From there, the blonde, statuesque Garr found steady work dancing in movies, and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout and Clambake. 

She also appeared on numerous television shows, including Star Trek, Dr. Kildare and Batman, and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show Shindig, the rock concert performance T.A.M.I. and a cast member of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. 

Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller The Conversation. That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974’s Young Frankenstein — if she could speak with a German accent. 

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once recalled. 

The film established her as a talented comedy performer, with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.” 

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped land her roles in Oh God! opposite George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as Michael Keaton’s wife) and Tootsie in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange. 

Although best known for comedy, Garr showed in such films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion and The Escape Artist that she could handle drama equally well. 

She had a flair for spontaneous humor, often playing David Letterman’s foil during guest appearances on NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman early in its run. 

Her appearances became so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing, that for a time rumors cropped up that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited those early appearances with helping make the show a hit. 

It was also during those years that Garr began to feel something in her right leg. It began in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm. By 1999 the symptoms had become so severe that she consulted a doctor. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis. 

For three years Garr didn’t reveal her illness. 

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t get work,” she explained in a 2003 interview. “People hear MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, the person has two days to live.'” 

After going public, she became a spokeswoman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, making humorous speeches to gatherings in the U.S. and Canada. 

“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because that’s a hard thing to do: to have people pity you,” she said in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m OK is tiresome.” 

She also continued to act, appearing on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Greetings From Tucson, Life With Bonnie and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role on Friends in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrow’s mother. After several failed romances, Garr married contractor John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996. 
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In Shanghai, police, not trick-or-treaters and partygoers, are taking to the streets this week as the city approaches Halloween. The strengthened police force accompanies official notices prohibiting citizens from “role-playing” on Halloween, signaling the government’s paranoia over the social instability the holiday’s festivities could bring.

Videos online show police cars lining the streets of Shanghai, with some officers approaching crowds and instructing them to disperse from fenced-off areas.

A leaked notice from the Huangpu subdistrict office identified any form of Halloween costumes, but especially role-playing costumes and makeup with gore, to be prohibited in public. Police have been instructed to persuade those in costume to leave or take off offensive garments and employ more coercive measures in the event of noncompliance.

The police garrisons, protocols and general air of malaise in Shanghai find their roots in the local government’s fear of mass protest, according to Shanghai resident Ma, who declined to provide her first name out of fear of reprisal for talking to VOA.

“The Communist Party knows that ‘a spark can start a prairie fire’ and that many young people are now unemployed and unable to find jobs,” Ma siad. “So they have deployed a large number of police forces on Changle Road and Julu Road, probably because they are worried that some of the freethinking young people will protest against the government in a strange way on Halloween.” Ma told VOA.

Costumed people taken by police

Some youth in Shanghai have appeared to ignore the warnings, gathering in Zhongshan park and the nearby streets to celebrate the holiday early. Online videos of the scene show some people in costume being taken away by the police, while others argue with law enforcement.

At another celebration Friday night, in the Jing An district, Reuters reported that an attendee in a skeleton costume was detained by the police and escorted to an administrative building where he was asked to remove his makeup.

Wang, a Shanghai resident who declined to provide his first name for his personal security, disagreed with the sudden tightening of restrictions on Halloween celebrations in his city.

“What can wearing a unique dress do?” Wang asked. “As a normal, civilized society, this should not be a matter of concern at all. It is normal to ‘let the arts blossom’ and allow everyone to release their inner yearning for freedom. In a normal, civilized society, the police maintain the safety of the people. In our case, it’s the opposite,” Wang said.

Originating in the West, Halloween has found popularity in China in recent years. This is especially the case in Shanghai, known as China’s most international city and for its relative open-mindedness.

In 2023, the city resumed the celebration of Halloween for the first time after the COVID-19 lockdowns, and some residents used this opportunity for self-expression to critique the Chinese government and political phenomena through costume. Some people dressed as Winnie the Pooh, a character that is often censored online in China given his likeness to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and others referenced past protests through covering their bodies in white paper.

Ma believes that tensions this week between Halloween celebrants and local authorities are unlikely to escalate.

“Young people are indeed rebellious, but because of the education we have received since childhood, most Chinese young people dare not, and are unlikely, to rebel,” Ma said.

“Will the authorities completely control and prohibit Halloween? I don’t think they will, but they will strictly control it. There will definitely be a lot of police in more important places. If any little thing happens, they will immediately send a police car to prevent the matter from escalating,” she said.

Unique opportunity for free expression

Chen Daoyin, an independent political analyst in China, told VOA that he believes that Halloween provides Chinese people with a unique opportunity for Western-style free expression.

“Most people, especially young people who dress up as characters on festivals like Halloween, have usually adopted Western culture, or at the very least know that people in Western systems have the freedom of expression,” Chen said.

“We have opinions about the current situation and the government, and can make our voices heard, but we also know that this is not allowed in the current political environment in China. Everyone knows what is going on. So they express their dissatisfaction with the authorities through dressing up as characters,” he said.

Li Rongwei, executive director of the Taiwan Inspirational Association, however, told VOA that the holiday’s Western origins make it more susceptible to suppression.

“For China, Halloween is a product of the West, a typical capitalist bourgeois thing,” Li said. “Since Halloween is a foreign thing and not a product of the so-called Chinese nation or China as the CCP believes, it is, of course, a class struggle and should be slandered,” Li said.

October 27 marked the first anniversary of the death of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, whose unexpected passing less than a year after he left the powerful premier position, sparked online conspiracy theories about the Chinese government. The Chinese government also might fear a social disruption akin to the 2022 White Paper Movement in protest of strict pandemic regulations that was referenced at Halloween celebrations in Shanghai last year.

“Social movements always have to have a reason, and it is conceivable to use Li Keqiang as the reason,” Lai said. “This is also what the CCP fears the most. A tandem movement always has a theme. According to the perception of the CCP’s top officials, it may be believed that this is a social movement planned by foreign forces.”

But Chen believes that it is an over-speculation and inaccurate to link this year’s crackdown on Halloween with Li Keqiang and the White Paper Movement and says that there will not be any kind of uprising in China without an acute inciting incident.

“It is impossible for the youth of today … to start a movement of any kind without the impact of a big event,” he said.

“So far this year, there has been no major event that can arouse empathy and emotional expression,” Chen said.

Katherine Michaelson and Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Africa’s football governing body has sided with Nigeria in that country’s dispute with Libya over a canceled qualifying game. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded Nigeria a 3-0 victory over Libya following accusations Libya deliberately breached competition guidelines.

Libya’s football federation is appealing.

The decision by the CAF puts Nigeria at the top of their division, Group D, and in contention for a spot at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations, or AFCON, finals, in Morocco.

The CAF on Saturday said Libya violated a rule that mandates that host nations receive and manage the logistics of visiting teams.

The body also ordered Libya to pay a fine of $50,000 within 60 days.

On October 15, Nigerian players returned home rather than play what would have been a qualifying match in Libya. They were protesting long delays at an airport about 250 kilometers away from the venue after their charter flight was unexpectedly diverted. Some news reports say the players were delayed by about 16 hours.

Nigerian football fan Elvis Ume welcomed the CAF’s decision.

“I think justice was served because the truth of the matter is that they genuinely put our players’ lives in danger,” he said “It was extremely malicious on their part. In my opinion they got off lightly. I think CAF could still have been a bit more firm in their decision for it to serve a sort of a deterrent to other countries.”

But the Libya Football Federation, or LFF, denies deliberately trying to dampen the morale of the Nigerian Super Eagles players and has appealed the decision.

Libya called the CAF’s decision unjust and malicious. The federation accused the Nigerian team of using the reputation of its players – who are team members of various European leagues – to win global support on the matter.

The LFF said its players faced similar challenges in Nigeria days earlier and that the situation is not unique to African football leagues.

Sports analysts say common tricks may include immigration delays, lengthy trips or allocation of poor training facilities.

“When you look at antecedents, the North Africans especially Libya, Morocco, Egypt, they’re known for this ‘gamesmanship,'” said Nigerian sports analyst Bunmi Haruna. “I think in Europe they call it the ‘dark act.’ This is the chance for CAF to let the whole world know … it’s not good for our football in any way.”

Haruna said the CAF must continue to uphold this standard.

“I think it’s a very good step from CAF and I hope it’s not just going to be a one-off because these things happen even in club football. They want to go and appeal, which is good in terms of testing the laws.”

It is very unlikely that the CAF will reverse its decision, but many will be watching to see the outcome of Libya’s appeal.
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Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a musical group of American Christians calling themselves the Texas Country Boys have been playing charity events in Ukraine. Tetiana Kukurika met with the band members to find out why Ukraine is so important to them. Anna Rice narrates her story. (Camera: Sergiy Rybchynski; Produced by:  Vitaliy
Hrychanyuk and Anna Rice )
…

WARNGAU, Germany — Farmers and their horses walked in a festive parade through the small Bavarian town of Warngau on Sunday to honor their patron saint, St. Leonhard.

Their manes neatly combed, the massive horses were decorated with ribbons and greenery as they pulled the adorned carriages to a local church as part of the procession some 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Munich.

Farmers donned colorful regional costumes and hats decorated with tufts of animal hair called Gamsbart, or chamois beards, as townspeople joined in amid the pounding of hooves. After the procession, the revelry traditionally turned to toasts with schnapps.

Often called Leonhardiritt or Leonhardifahrt, the traditional pilgrimage dates back centuries in Bavaria and Austria. It was revived in Warngau in 1983, after an 80-year break, and takes place there each year on the fourth Sunday in October, ahead of the annual Nov. 6 feast day.

St. Leonhard (St. Leonard in English) is the patron saint of farmers, horses and livestock. Also known as St. Leonard of Noblac, he was a Frankish courtier who asked God to repel an invading army, according to the Catholic News Agency. His plea worked, and he converted to Christianity following what he believed was a miracle.

Other Bavarian towns have similar traditions. In Bad Tolz, southwest of Warngau, this year’s Nov. 6 procession will be the 169th in a row.

Bad Tolz’s pilgrimage is listed on the Nationwide Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the German Commission for UNESCO. Only cold-blooded horses — large draft horses like Clydesdales — are allowed in the procession, which begins at 9 a.m. when all of the town’s church bells ring.

The crowd journeys to a Leonhardi chapel for blessings and an open-air Mass. The tradition involves the entire town, from the youth to the clergy and the city councilors.

St. Leonhard mostly lived in monasteries and in seclusion in what is now France, though Bad Tolz calls him the “Bavarian Lord.” According to legend, his prayers were believed to be breaking the chains of captives. He is also the patron saint of prisoners, among other groups.

He died of natural causes around the year 559, and many Catholic churches have been dedicated to him throughout Europe.
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New York — “Venom: The Last Dance” showed less bite than expected at the box office, collecting $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly down from the alien symbiote franchise’s previous entries.

Projections for the third “Venom” film from Sony Pictures had been closer to $65 million. More concerning, though, was the drop off from the first two “Venom” films. The 2018 original debuted with $80.2 million, while the 2021 follow-up, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” opened with $90 million even as theaters were still in recovery mode during the pandemic.

“The Last Dance,” starring Tom Hardy as a journalist who shares his body with an alien entity also voiced by Hardy, could still turn a profit for Sony. Its production budget, not accounting for promotion and marketing, was about $120 million — significantly less than most comic-book films.

But “The Last Dance” is also performing better overseas. Internationally, “Venom: The Last Dance” collected $124 million over the weekend, including $46 million over five days of release in China. That’s good enough for one of the best international weekends of the year for a Hollywood release.

Still, neither reviews (36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) nor audience scores (a franchise-low “B-” CinemaScore) have been good for the film scripted by Kelly Marcel and Hardy, and directed by Marcel.

The low weekend for “Venom: The Last Dance” also likely insures that superhero films will see their lowest-grossing year in a dozen years, not counting the pandemic year of 2020, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.

Following on the heels of the “Joker: Folie à Deux” flop, Gross estimates that 2024 superhero films will gross about $2.25 billion worldwide. The only upcoming entry is Marvel’s “Kraven the Hunter,” due out Dec. 13. Even with the $1.3 billion of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the genre hasn’t, overall, been dominating the way it once did. In 2018, for example, superhero films accounted for more than $7 billion in global ticket sales.

Last week’s top film, the Paramount Pictures horror sequel “Smile 2,” dropped to second place with $9.4 million. That brings its two-week total to $83.7 million worldwide.

The weekend’s biggest success story might have been “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”). The Focus Features release, a major Oscar contender, launched with $6.5 million in 1,753 theaters.

That put “Conclave” into third place, making it the rare adult-oriented drama to make a mark theatrically. Some 77% of ticket buyers were over the age of 35, Focus said. With a strong opening and stellar reviews, “Conclave” could continue to gather momentum both with moviegoers and Oscar voters.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Venom: The Last Dance,” $51 million.

2. “Smile 2,” $9.4 million.

3. “Conclave,” $6.5 million.

4. “The Wild Robot,” $6.5 million.

5. “We Live in Time,” $4.8 million.

6. “Terrifier 3,” $4.3 million.

7. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $3.2 million.

8. “Anora,” $867,142.

9. “Piece by Piece,” $720,000.

10. “Transformers One,” $720,000.
    …

Baalbek, Lebanon — Since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, the famed Palmyra Hotel in east Lebanon’s Baalbek has been without visitors, but long-time employee Rabih Salika refuses to leave — even as bombs drop nearby.

The hotel, which was built in 1874, once welcomed renowned guests including former French President Charles de Gaulle and American singer Nina Simone.

Overlooking a large archaeological complex encompassing the ruins of an ancient Roman town, the Palmyra has kept its doors open through several conflicts and years of economic collapse.

“This hotel hasn’t closed its doors for 150 years,” Salika said, explaining that it welcomed guests at the height of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and during Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006.

The 45-year-old has worked there for more than half his life and says he will not abandon it now.

“I’m very attached to this place,” he said, adding that the hotel’s vast, desolate halls leave “a huge pang in my heart.”

He spends his days dusting decaying furniture and antique mirrors. He clears glass shards from windows shattered by strikes.

Baalbek, known as the ‘City of the Sun’ in ancient times, is home to one of the world’s largest complex of Roman temples — designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

But the latest Israel-Hezbollah war has cast a pall over the eastern city, home to an estimated 250,000 people before the war.

Life at a standstill

After a year of cross-border clashes with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped-up strikes on the group’s strongholds, including parts of Baalbek.

Only about 40 percent of Baalbek’s residents remain in the city, local officials say, mainly crammed into the city’s few Sunni-majority districts.

On October 6, Israeli strikes fell hundreds of meters (yards) away from the Roman columns that bring tourists to the city and the Palmyra hotel.

UNESCO told AFP it was “closely following the impact of the ongoing crisis in Lebanon on the cultural heritage sites.”

More than a month into the war, a handful of Baalbek’s shops remain open, albeit for short periods of time.

“The market is almost always closed. It opens for one hour a day, and sometimes not at all,” said Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall.

Residents shop for groceries quickly in the morning, rarely venturing out after sundown.

They try “not to linger on the streets fearing an air strike could hit at any moment,” he said.

Last year, nearly 70,000 tourists and 100,000 Lebanese visited Baalbek. But the city has only attracted five percent of those figures so far this year, the mayor said.

Even before the war, local authorities in Baalbek were struggling to provide public services due to a five-year economic crisis.

Now municipality employees are mainly working to clear the rubble from the streets and provide assistance to shelters housing the displaced.

A Baalbek hospital was put out of service by a recent Israeli strike, leaving only five other facilities still fully functioning, Shall said.

‘No one’

Baalbek resident Hussein al-Jammal said the war has turned his life upside down.

“The streets were full of life, the citadel was welcoming visitors, restaurants were open, and the markets were crowded,” the 37-year-old social worker said.

“Now, there is no one.”

His young children and his wife have fled the fighting, but he said he had a duty to stay behind and help those in need.

“I work in the humanitarian field, I cannot leave, even if everyone leaves,” he said.

Only four homes in his neighborhood are still inhabited, he said, mostly by vulnerable elderly people.

“I pay them a visit every morning to see what they need,” he said, but “it’s hard to be away from your family.”

Rasha al-Rifai, 45, provides psychological support to women facing gender-based violence.

But in the month since the war began, she has lost contact with many.

“Before the war… we didn’t worry about anything,” said Rifai, who lives with her elderly parents.

“Now everything has changed, we work remotely, we don’t see anyone, most of the people I know have left.”

“In the 2006 war we were displaced several times, it was a very difficult experience, we don’t want this to happen again,” she said.

“We will stay here as long as it is bearable.”
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Bangkok — Thousands of well-wishers lined the banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River Sunday to watch King Maha Vajiralongkorn ride a glittering royal barge procession to mark his 72nd birthday.

A flotilla of 52 ornately decorated boats, paddled by more than 2,000 oarsmen decked out in scarlet and gold, carried the king and Queen Suthida in formation through the heart of the Thai capital to a Buddhist ceremony at Wat Arun, the city’s ancient Temple of Dawn.

The king, officially regarded as semi-divine but who came in for unprecedented criticism in street protests in 2020 and 2021, took his place on a century-old royal barge known as the “Golden Swan” to deliver robes to monks in a ceremony marking the end of Buddhist Lent.

Royal barge processions date back hundreds of years, but are held rarely, saved for the most significant occasions — most recently, the king’s coronation in 2019.

During the 70-year reign of the previous king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, only 16 barge processions were held.

King Vajiralongkorn turned 72 in July, completing his “sixth cycle” in the 12-year astrological calendar — a milestone regarded by Thais as important and auspicious.

Normally the intricately ornamented barges — their prows decorated with garudas, nagas and other mythical creatures from Buddhist and Hindu mythology — are kept in a museum.

But on days of national importance, navy oarsmen in sarongs, red tunics and traditional hats propel them through the water to the banging of drums, as perfectly coordinated golden paddles break the waters.

Only four of the barges are actually deemed “royal,” while the others are officially royal escort vessels.

The barge procession dates back to Thailand’s 1350-1767 Ayutthaya period. When Bangkok was built more than 250 years ago, kings used the boats to travel through the capital’s network of canals.

As Thailand modernized, the barges fell out of use, but king Bhumibol revived the tradition in 1957 to celebrate the 25th century of the Buddhist era.
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Rome — A major Vatican meeting gathering clerics and laity across the globe to discuss the future of the Catholic Church closes this weekend, thwarting discussion of women becoming priests or deacons in the world’s largest Christian denomination.

But that didn’t stop a half-dozen Catholic women from “ordination” in a secret ceremony in Rome that was not authorized by the Vatican.

Jesuit Father Allan Deck, a professor at the Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount University, told VOA that the Catholic Church under Pope Francis’ leadership recognizes the need for adaptability to realize its spiritual mission in the world at this time of significant change.

“Not the first time that the church in its 2,000-year history has experienced very significant shifts,” he said. “The church, in order to accomplish its mission, has to engage people, circumstances and times. And it has to be capable of development, while at the same time remaining faithful to its mission and to the revelation that has been communicated to it. This is hard. This is what’s happening.”

While Catholic women participated over the past month in what many consider the most significant Catholic gathering since the 1960s — called the “synod on synodality” — many of their number were let down by a Vatican decision to sideline talk of the ordination of female priests or deacons, instead referring the matter to a future study group.

Bridget Mary Meehan, an American co-founder of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, told VOA that her organization has performed 270 ordinations of women in 14 countries since its creation in 2002.

“We wanted to share with Pope Francis that it is time to build a bridge between the international women priests’ movement and the Vatican,” she said. “We are on the same page as he is about a synodal church. We believe all are called, all are equal and all are co-responsible for the mission of the church — to be the face of Christ in the world in loving and compassionate service. One of these ways is ordained ministry.”

Advocates say women play a huge role in daily Catholic ministries — also called the diakonia — in education, pastoral care and hospitals worldwide. In some places, women are especially active because there are no priests, such as in the Amazon. But often their leadership is not recognized.

Meehan “ordained” six Catholic women from France, Spain and the United States on a barge on Rome’s Tiber River earlier this month to acknowledge their central role in ministry around the world.

“We did it because we felt that it’s time for us, after 22 years of serving the church in the diakonia ministry, to really share the good news that women are being ordained by Catholic communities who want to call them forward to ministry among them,” Meehan said.

“It’s like a renewal of ministry that is already in the midst of the Catholic Church. It’s already occurring,” she said.

Although Pope Francis has appointed more women to top jobs at the Vatican than any of his predecessors, he has ruled out female priests or deacons ministering in the Catholic Church.
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los angeles — Phil Lesh, a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who found his true calling reinventing the role of rock bass guitar as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, died Friday at age 84.

Lesh’s death was announced on his Instagram account. He was the oldest and one of the longest-surviving members of the band that came to define the acid rock sound emanating from San Francisco in the 1960s.

Lesh “passed peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love,” the Instagram statement said.

The statement did not cite a cause of death, and attempts to reach representatives for additional details were not immediately successful. Lesh had previously survived bouts of prostate cancer, bladder cancer and a 1998 liver transplant necessitated by the debilitating effects of a hepatitis C infection and years of heavy drinking.

Lesh’s death came two days after MusiCares named the Grateful Dead its Persons of the Year. MusiCares, which helps music professionals needing financial or other kinds of assistance, cited Lesh’s Unbroken Chain Foundation, among other philanthropic initiatives. The Dead will be honored in January at a benefit gala ahead of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Low profile

Although he kept a relatively low public profile, rarely granting interviews or speaking to the audience, fans and fellow band members recognized Lesh as a critical member of the Grateful Dead whose thundering lines on the six-string electric bass provided a brilliant counterpoint to lead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s soaring solos and anchored the band’s famous marathon jams.

“When Phil’s happening, the band’s happening,” Garcia once said.

Drummer Mickey Hart called him the group’s intellectual who brought a classical composer’s mindset and skills to a five-chord rock ‘n’ roll band.

Lesh credited Garcia with teaching him to play the bass in the unorthodox lead-guitar style that he would become famous for, mixing thundering arpeggios with snippets of spontaneously composed orchestral passages.

Fellow bass player Rob Wasserman once said Lesh’s style set him apart from every other bassist he knew of. While most others were content to keep time and take the occasional solo, Wasserman said Lesh was both good enough and confident enough to lead his fellow musicians through a song’s melody.

“He happens to play bass but he’s more like a horn player, doing all those arpeggios — and he has that counterpoint going all the time,” he said.

Lesh began his long musical odyssey as a classically trained violinist, starting with lessons in third grade. He took up the trumpet at 14, eventually earning the second chair in California’s Oakland Symphony Orchestra while still in his teens.

But he had largely put both instruments aside and was driving a mail truck and working as a sound engineer for a small radio station in 1965 when Garcia recruited him to play bass in a fledgling rock band called the Warlocks.

Armed with a cheap four-string instrument his girlfriend bought him, Lesh sat down for a seven-hour lesson with Garcia, following the latter’s advice that he tune his instrument’s strings an octave lower than the four bottom strings on Garcia’s guitar. Then Garcia turned him loose, allowing Lesh to develop the spontaneous style of playing that he would embrace for the rest of his life.

Traded leads

Lesh and Garcia would frequently exchange leads, often spontaneously, while the band as a whole would frequently break into long experimental, jazz-influenced jams during concerts. The result was that even well-known Grateful Dead songs like “Truckin’ ” or “Sugar Magnolia” rarely sounded the same two performances in a row, something that would inspire loyal fans to attend show after show.

“It’s always fluid. We just pretty much figure it out on the fly,” Lesh said, chuckling, during a rare 2009 interview with The Associated Press. “You can’t set those things in stone in the rehearsal room.”

Phillip Chapman Lesh was born on March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, California, the only child of Frank Lesh, an office equipment repairman, and his wife, Barbara.

He would say in later years that his love of music came from listening to broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic on his grandmother’s radio. One of his earliest memories was hearing the great German composer Bruno Walter lead that orchestra through Brahms’ First Symphony.

Musical influences he often cited were not rock musicians but composers like Bach and Edgard Varese, as well as jazz greats like John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

Lesh had gravitated from classical music to cool jazz by the time he arrived at the College of San Mateo, eventually becoming first trumpet player in the school’s big band and a composer of several orchestral pieces the group performed.

But he set the trumpet aside after college, concluding he didn’t have the lung power to become an elite player.

Soon after he took up the bass, the Warlocks renamed themselves the Grateful Dead and Lesh began captivating audiences with his dexterity. Crowds gathered in what came to be known as “The Phil Zone” directly in front of his position onstage.

Although he was never a prolific songwriter, Lesh also composed music for the band and sometimes sang some of its most beloved songs. Among them were the upbeat country rocker “Pride of Cucamonga,” the jazz-influenced “Unbroken Chain” and the ethereally beautiful “Box of Rain.”

Lesh composed the latter on guitar as a gift for his dying father, and he recalled that Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, upon hearing the instrumental recording, approached him the next day with a lyric sheet. On that sheet, he said, were “some of the most moving and heartfelt lyrics I’ve ever had the good fortune to sing.”

The band often closed its concerts with the song.

Later tours

After the group’s dissolution following Garcia’s 1995 death, Lesh often skipped joining the other surviving members when they got together to perform.

He did take part in a 2009 Grateful Dead tour and again in 2015 for a handful of “Fare Thee Well” concerts marking both the band’s 50th anniversary and what Lesh said would be the last time he would play with the others.

He did continue to play frequently, however, with a rotating cast of musicians he called Phil Lesh and Friends.

In later years he usually held those performances at Terrapin Crossroads, a restaurant and nightclub he opened near his Northern California home in 2012, which was named after the Grateful Dead song and album “Terrapin Station.”

Lesh is survived by his wife, Jill, and sons Brian and Grahame.
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