The Canadian virtuoso, known for his solo on “Chest Fever,” gave the group a “sound twice as big” and his mates music lessons.

It's so fitting that Garth Hudson was the last man standing from the Band. The beloved organ virtuoso died on Tuesday morning at 87, near Woodstock - just a few miles down the road from Big Pink, the house where the Band and Bob Dylan transformed music history just by jamming in the basement.

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,