Tom Constanten (born March 19, 1944) is an American

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

, best known for playing with

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

from 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Biography

Early career

Born in

Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside city in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 30,719,Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

and briefly studied

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and music at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he met future Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh in the summer of 1961. The two became roommates and dropped out; shortly thereafter, they enrolled in a graduate-level course taught by Italian modernist composer Luciano Berio at Mills College. Constanten also studied piano with Mario Feninger. In 1962, he lived in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, met

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel '' The Name of th ...

, and studied on a scholarship with members of the Darmstadt School, including Berio,

Henri Pousseur Henri Léon Marie-Thérèse Pousseur (23 June 1929 – 6 March 2009) was a Belgian classical composer, teacher, and music theorist. Biography Pousseur was born in Malmedy and studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 to ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

.''Digital Interviews'' After briefly rooming with Lesh in Las Vegas and returning to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

, Constanten performed with an improvisational quintet formed by

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...

. The group's unusual style was influenced by both

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and Stockhausen. In a 1964 performance, the ensemble played serialism-influenced compositions by both Constanten and Lesh. Although he walked out from the performance, minimalist composer Terry Riley later allowed the ensemble to premiere '' In C''. However, only Reich and one other member of the group, saxophonist-composer Jon Gibson, appeared in the seminal performance.

US Air Force service

Faced with the possibility of conscription amid the escalation of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, Constanten enlisted in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

in 1965 as a computer programmer. Although the Air Force was deployed in southeast Asia, he was not given a

security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...

after divulging his past

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

sympathies and remained stationed domestically at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas; while on leave, he used LSD and composed music on military mainframe computers, including the

IBM 1401 The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on pu ...

. By 1967, he had been promoted to sergeant. During this period, he first collaborated with the Grateful Dead as a session musician on '' Anthem of the Sun'' (1968); Constanten used several compensatory three-day passes to travel to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

to record with the band. (T.C. listed himself as a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

on his military records, so when the Grateful Dead scheduled a recording session, he declared a spurious Buddhist holiday and went to L.A.)

Tenure in the Grateful Dead

After sitting in with the band during live performances as his schedule permitted, the day after an honorable

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

, Constanten made his stage debut with the Dead as their permanent keyboardist on November 23, 1968, at the Memorial Auditorium in Athens, Ohio. He later remarked that "it was a case of being an Air Force sergeant one day and a rock & roll star the next." He remained with the group for three albums and left by mutual agreement after the band's infamous

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, the latter musician stayed on with the band as a frontman-percussionist; in light of their mutual abstinence from psychedelics, they became "as close as two heterosexual males could be," shared a house in Novato, California, and bunked together while touring. While he had successfully contributed to their complex experimental music, his instrumental style was then grounded in classical technique and bore little consanguinity with the folk, blues, and

country and western A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while t ...

stylings that would largely anchor the band's oeuvre throughout the early 1970s. Although he performed with a full panoply of keyboard instruments (including piano and

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

) on 1969's '' Aoxomoxoa'', Constanten initially played a double-manual Vox Continental II combo organ on stage before switching to McKernan's

Hammond B-3 The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

in the spring of 1969; nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the comparatively dulcet timbres of both instruments vis-à-vis guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir in a live performance context: " eir sounds ranged from barely acceptable to cringeworthy. For another, I couldn't find a place for the sustained sound of an organ in a guitar band context—ahhh, for a piano! Furthermore, the action of an organ keyboard, electronic or not, was sufficiently different from that of a piano, which was all I'd known until then, to be an obstacle to my getting a feel for the music. Basically, I wasn't an organist. A Merl Saunders or a Melvin Seals could've stepped in... but they weren't there. As if that weren't enough, the amplification technology of the times was much kinder to guitars, with their direct pickups, than it was to pianos. All the electric keyboards available then, you might recall, represented some sort of cheesy compromise with the real thing..." Several band members and employees felt that he did not fit in with the Dead ethos despite his longstanding friendships with Lesh and Garcia; for example, he was a member of the Church of Scientology throughout his tenure with the band and thus declined to become re-involved with LSD and other drugs. According to band manager Rock Scully, "He was so different. You know, he was like a crew cut. He was like a Marine in a prison camp full of Japanese. He was like our boss in a way. Nobody could go for the hard-wire technology of his brainpower. I was told I was too hard on him, too. But I had no beef." Echoing Scully's sentiments, drummer

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

noted in his 2015 memoir that he "got along really well" with Constanten and thought he was "a cool enough guy"; however, he felt that " onstantenhad this thing where, for whatever reason, he would perform at rehearsals pretty darn well, but then, when we'd be in front of an audience, it was like he froze or something. He couldn't let go... couldn't trust the music to lead... you can't do that, you can't be in the band." Although Kreutzmann "felt no animosity" toward Constanten upon his departure, he did not consider him to be a "card-carrying member" of the Grateful Dead. Constanten's last concert with the Dead was on January 24, 1970 at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...

, which is featured on ''

Dave's Picks Volume 19 ''Dave's Picks Volume 19'' is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on January 23, 1970, at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium in Honolulu, Hawaii. It also includes bonus tracks recorded th ...

''.

Life after the Dead

After leaving the Grateful Dead, Constanten collaborated with Joe McCord, a mime who performed as "Rubber Duck." This culminated in Constanten writing the music for McCord's ''Tarot'', a mime play based on the tarot deck that was performed at the Chelsea Theater Center in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

in 1970. Although a proposed

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

run in Manhattan failed to manifest, the musicians associated with the project (including Constanten, former Country Joe and the Fish drummer

Gary "Chicken" Hirsh Gary "Chicken" Hirsh (March 9, 1940 – August 17, 2021) was an American drummer, best known for his work with the rock group Country Joe and the Fish. Hirsh was born in Chicago, Illinois. In December 1966, he replaced John Francis Gunning, but l ...

and composer

Paul Dresher Paul Joseph Dresher (born January 8, 1951 in Los Angeles) is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he st ...

) performed several shows at the Village Gate before relocating to

, where they continued to perform as Touchstone, an

instrumental rock Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instru ...

band. During this period, Constanten worked on a proposed musical version of ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific exp ...

'' for '' Hair'' producer Michael Butler, who also considered mounting a production of ''Tarot''. Touchstone's debut album (''Tarot'') was released by

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1959, ...

in 1972 and contained much of the music intended for the play; however, according to Constanten, "United Artists Records was cool to instrumental bands, though, so they didn’t promote the album a whole lot. The fact that the show didn’t catch fire during the New York run didn’t help. So the second album our contract mentioned (and we had material for) evaporated into the fog on the Hollywood hills." Shortly thereafter, Constanten held a Creative Associate fellowship in composition at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1 ...

new music New music may refer to: Musical styles and movements Pre-20th century * Ars nova, musical style in 14th-century France and the Low Countries * ''Le nuove musiche'', collection of monody by Giulio Caccini * New German School, music style in late 1 ...

-oriented Center of the Creative and Performing Arts during the 1974–1975 academic year. In 1986, he was an artist in residence at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute. From 1986 to 1993, he was the house pianist for the radio program '' West Coast Weekend'', playing solo piano and interstitial music. In 1994, he was inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

with the Grateful Dead. Constanten continues to tour as a solo pianist. He has also played with the reconstituted lineup of Jefferson Starship as a touring member, most notably during the

Heroes of Woodstock The Heroes of Woodstock Tour was a North American concert tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The tour featured several bands, most of which performed at the original Woodstock festival or feature members that pe ...

tour; several of his performances with the group are showcased in the ''Mick's Picks'' series of live albums. He has also sat in with a variety of Grateful Dead tribute bands, including

Dark Star Orchestra Dark Star Orchestra is a Grateful Dead cover band formed in Chicago, Illinois. They serve as a tribute band to the rock group the Grateful Dead. Since 1997, the band has been "celebrating the Grateful Dead concert experience." Overview Dark S ...

and Terrapin Flyer. As of 2015, Constanten is a member of

Alphonso Johnson Alphonso Johnson (born February 2, 1951) is an American jazz bassist active since the early 1970s. Johnson was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1973 to 1975, and has performed and recorded with numerous high-profile rock ...

's Jazz Is Dead, an instrumental Grateful Dead cover band that interprets classic Dead songs with jazz influences. After meeting Grateful Dead sound engineer Bob Bralove at Jerry Garcia's memorial service, the duo formed Dose Hermanos, a showcase for their improvisational keyboard work; since 1998, they have toured irregularly and released five albums.

Philosophy

In 2002, Tom Constanten stated in an interview:

Personal life

Constanten currently resides in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. In 2012, he recovered from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

. On August 16, 2016, Constanten reported on Facebook that he was in the hospital with a broken neck, after slipping and falling on wet cement on August 10, while walking to the post office from his car in a heavy rain.//http://www.antimusic.com/news/16/August/17Grateful_Dead_Star_Breaks_His_Neck.shtml

Discography

*'' Anthem of the Sun'' (1968) –

*'' Aoxomoxoa'' (1969) – Grateful Dead *'' Live/Dead'' (1969) – Grateful Dead *'' U'' (1970) – The Incredible String Band *'' Zabriskie Point'' (1970) – various artists *''Tarot'' (1972) – Touchstone *''Duino Elegies'' (1988) –

Robert Hunter Robert Hunter may refer to: Arts * Robert Hunter (painter) (died 1780), Irish portrait painter * Robert Hunter (encyclopædist) (1823–1897), British editor of the ''Encyclopædic Dictionary'' *Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942), American sociol ...

*''Fresh Tracks in Real Time'' (1989) – Tom Constanten *''Alternate Versions'' (1989) – Henry Kaiser *''OutSides'' (1990) – Tom Constanten *''Heart's Desire'' (1990) – Henry Kaiser *''Sonatas by Beethoven, Schubert and Hadyn'' (1991) – Tom Constanten *''Hope You Like Our New Direction'' (1991) – Henry Kaiser *''A Victorian Christmas'' (1991) –

Robin Petrie Robin Petrie is an American santur and hammered dulcimer player. Petrie has been performing popular and seldom-heard hammered dulcimer music since 1980. She is heard regularly on National Public Radio. Though focusing initially on British Isles and ...

*''Nightfall of Diamonds'' (1992) – Tom Constanten *''Morning Dew'' (1993) – Tom Constanten *''A Victorian Noel'' (1993) – Robin Petrie *''Eternity Blue'' (1994) – Henry Kaiser *''Dead Ringers'' (1994) – Dead Ringers *''Embryonic Journey'' (1994) – Jorma Kaukonen and Tom Constanten *''

Grayfolded ''Grayfolded'' is a two-CD album produced by John Oswald featuring new edits and re-mixes of the Grateful Dead song " Dark Star". Using over a hundred different performances of the song, recorded live between 1968 and 1993, Oswald, using a proces ...

'' (1994) – Grateful Dead *''The Siamese Stepbrothers'' (1995) – The Siamese Stepbrothers *''Live in Concert at the Piano'' (1996) – Tom Constanten *''Blues For Allah Project'' (1996) – Joe Gallant and Illuminati *''Sonic Roar Shock'' (1997) – Dose Hermanos *''

Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69 ''Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69'' is a double live album by the Grateful Dead recorded during the '' Live/Dead'' tour on February 11, 1969, at the Fillmore East in New York City. The first disc represents the early show that night, the se ...

'' (1997) – Grateful Dead *'' Fallout from the Phil Zone'' (1997) – Grateful Dead *''Live from California'' (1998) – Dose Hermanos *''Shadow of the Invisible Man'' (DVD, 1999) – Dose Hermanos *''Grateful Dreams (2000)'' – Tom Constanten *''Search for Intelligent Life'' (2000) – Dose Hermanos *''

Dick's Picks Volume 16 ''Dick's Picks Volume 16'' is the 16th live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on November 8, 1969 (with one song from the previous night's show) at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, Califo ...

'' (2000) – Grateful Dead *''88 Keys to Tomorrow'' (2002) – Tom Constanten *''

Dick's Picks Volume 26 ''Dick's Picks Volume 26'' is the 26th installment of the Grateful Dead's archival series. It was recorded on April 26, 1969 at the Electric Theater in Chicago, Illinois and on April 27, 1969 at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It ...

'' (2002) – Grateful Dead *''Bright Shadows'' (2004) – Dose Hermanos *''Jan 29, 2004, Charlotte, NC'' (2004) –

*''

The Complete Fillmore West 1969 ''Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings'' is a 10-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains four complete concerts recorded on February 27, February 28, March 1, and March 2, 1969, at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. ...

'' (2005) – Grateful Dead *''

Fillmore West 1969 ''Fillmore West 1969'' is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contain selected songs recorded at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on February 27 through March 2, 1969. The album was remixed and remastered from the orig ...

'' (2005) – Grateful Dead *''Shimmy Shack'' (2005) – Shimmy Shack *''For Rex: The Black Tie Dye Ball'' (2006) – The Zen Tricksters w/ Donna Godchaux, Mickey Hart, Tom Constanten, David Nelson, Michael Falzarano, Rob Barraco *''Moved to Stanleyville'' (2006) – Tom Constanten and Ken Foust *''Deep Expressions, Longtime Known'' (2006) – Tom Constanten *'' Gram Parsons Archives Vol.1: Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969'' (2007) – The Flying Burrito Brothers *''

Dave's Picks Volume 10 ''Dave's Picks Volume 10'' is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on December 12, 1969, at the Thelma music venue in Los Angeles, California. It was produced as a limited edition of ...

'' (2014) – Grateful Dead *''

30 Trips Around the Sun ''30 Trips Around the Sun'' is an 80-CD live album, packaged as a box set, by the rock band the Grateful Dead. Announced for the celebration of their 50th anniversary, it consists of 30 complete, previously unreleased concerts, with one show per y ...

'' (2015) – Grateful Dead *'' 30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995'' (2015) – Grateful Dead *'' Fillmore West 1969: February 27th'' (2018) – Grateful Dead *'' Dave's Picks Volume 30'' (2019) – Grateful Dead *''Fillmore West 1969: February 28th'' (2019) – Grateful Dead *''Fillmore West 1969: March 1st'' (2022) – Grateful Dead *''Dave's Picks Volume 43'' (2022) – Grateful Dead

Citations

General references

* * * * * *
Tom Constanten collection
at the