Phil Lesh's began playing the trumpet when he was fourteen years old, having
grown up being exposed to jazz greats such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
Lesh enrolled at UC Berkeley to become a music major, but he and a
friend, Tom Constanten, quickly became appalled by the music department's
tendency to discourage individual creativity.
Midway through his first semester at Berkeley, Lesh dropped out of college.
Lesh enrolled himself in composer, Luciano Berio's class at Mill's College
where he was finally given the opportunity to compose his own music. The
following summer, Lesh returned to California where he met Garcia and Pigpen
in Palo Alto. Once, in Kepler's bookstore, Lesh heard Garcia play banjo and
Lesh asked him to play on the radio show that Lesh was an engineer for.
Quickly, the two became friends.
One night in 1965, Lesh, Garcia, and Weir all happened to be at the same
party in Palo Alto. While in Garcia's car, smoking pot, Lesh mentioned that
he was interested in taking up an electric instrument, maybe the bass. Lesh
attended the Warlocks next gig and was invited to play bass with them. After
playing a few more gigs, the combination of talent became indelible.
This page was last modified on 4/16/98
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