Tony Markellis (10 September 1952 – 29 April 2021) was a

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, born in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat, seat of Lewis and Clark County, Montana, Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold ...

, to a Greek immigrant, Constantine Markellis, and the daughter of Greek immigrants, Victoria Carkulis, residing in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the ...

from 1975 until his death. Markellis was best known as the bass guitarist for the Trey Anastasio Band and various other groups led by

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

guitarist

Trey Anastasio Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III (born September 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, which he co-founded in 1983. He is credited by name as composer of 152 ...

Career

In his forty-seven year career he played blues, folk, jazz, rock, country, and bluegrass with musicians such as

Paul Butterfield Paul Vaughn Butterfield (December 17, 1942May 4, 1987) was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and bandleader. After early training as a Western concert flute, classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored ...

, The Mamas & the Papas,

Johnny Shines John Ned Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Biography Shines was born in Frayser, Tennessee, today a neighborhood of Memphis. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent m ...

David Bromberg David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. David Bromberg biographyat Billboard.com An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass rock, blues rock, folk rock, jazz rock, country rock, ...

, David Amram, Paul Siebel, Rosalie Sorrels, Eric Von Schmidt, Ellen McIlwaine, Mary McCaslin, Railbird, Jo Henley, and Floodwood. Markellis was a founding member of the groundbreaking Vermont-based jazz fusion group Kilimanjaro, as well as the Unknown Blues Band featuring Big Joe Burrell. In the late 1990s, Markellis became the first member of the first solo band of

guitarist

, forming the

rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm ...

with

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Russ Lawton Trey Anastasio Band, or TAB, is an American rock band led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Trey Anastasio of Phish. The band has existed in several permutations since 1998. Versions of the band have had different members, and briefly used th ...

. Including his work with Anastasio, Markellis has appeared on over one hundred albums. In addition to tours with the Trey Anastasio Band, he was working with Kilimanjaro, singer/songwriters Michael Jerling and Bob Warren, Ghosts of the Forest (a Phish/TAB hybrid), Mardi Gras carnival funk band Krewe Orleans, and occasionally with Americana band Jo Henley. On June 20, 2010 (Fathers Day), Tony was invited on stage at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) to play bass with Phish on "Gotta Jibboo" (one of the songs he cowrote with Trey and

for the Trey Anastasio Band). Phish's bassist, Mike Gordon played the second guitar during the song. One of Markellis' final public performances was accompanying Anastasio for the majority of his "Beacon Jams" series of livestream concert series in the fall of 2020, which were held in the empty Beacon Theatre during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Death

Markellis died on April 29, 2021.

Notes

External links

* * 2021 deaths American bass guitarists People from Helena, Montana 1952 births {{US-bass-guitarist-stub