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Tom Constanten

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Tom Constanten
Born(1944-03-19)March 19, 1944(age 80)
Long Branch, New Jersey,U.S.
OriginSan Francisco,California,U.S.
GenresRock,psychedelia,classical
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)
  • Piano
  • organ
Years active1960s–present
Websitetomconstanten.com

Tom Constanten(born March 19, 1944) is an Americankeyboardist,best known for playing withGrateful Deadfrom 1968 to 1970, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Biography[edit]

Early career[edit]

Born inLong Branch, New Jersey,United States, and known among friends and colleagues asT.C.,Tom Constanten wrote orchestral pieces as a teenager while growing up inLas Vegas, Nevada.He briefly studiedastronomyand music at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,where he met future Grateful Dead bassistPhil Leshin the summer of 1961. The two became roommates and dropped out; shortly thereafter, they enrolled in a graduate-level course taught by Italian modernist composerLuciano Berioat nearbyMills College.Constanten also studied piano with Mario Feninger. In 1962, he lived inBrusselsandParis,metUmberto Eco,and studied on a scholarship with members of theDarmstadt School,including Berio,Henri Pousseur,Karlheinz StockhausenandPierre Boulez.[1][2]

After briefly rooming with Lesh in Las Vegas and returning to theSan Francisco Bay Area,Constanten performed with an improvisational quintet formed bySteve Reich.The group's unusual style was influenced by bothjazzand Stockhausen. In a 1964 performance, the ensemble playedserialism-influenced compositions by both Constanten and Lesh. Although he walked out from the performance,minimalistcomposerTerry Rileylater allowed the ensemble to premiereIn C.However, only Reich and one other member of the group, saxophonist-composerJon Gibson,appeared in the performance.[3]

US Air Force service[edit]

Faced with the possibility ofconscriptionamid the escalation of theVietnam War,Constanten preemptively enlisted in theUnited States Air Forcein 1965 as acomputer programmer.Although the Air Force was deployed in southeast Asia, he was not given asecurity clearanceafter divulging his pastcommunistsympathies and remained stationed domestically atNellis Air Force Basenear Las Vegas; while on leave, he usedLSDand composed music on militarymainframe computers,including theIBM 1401.By 1967, he had been promoted tosergeant.During this period, he first collaborated with the Grateful Dead as a session musician onAnthem of the Sun(1968); Constanten used several compensatory three-day passes to travel toLos Angelesto record with the band.)[4]

Tenure in the Grateful Dead[edit]

After sitting in with the band during live performances as his schedule permitted, the day after an honorabledischarge,Constanten made his stage debut with the Dead as their permanent keyboardist on November 23, 1968, at the Memorial Auditorium inAthens, Ohio.He later remarked that "it was a case of being an Air Force sergeant one day and a rock & roll star the next."[5]He remained with the group for three albums and left by mutual agreement after the band's infamousNew Orleansdrug bust following a January 30, 1970, show at the Warehouse. "It was like a magic carpet ride that was there for me to step on," he says. "I would have been a fool not to." Although Constanten nominally replaced founding keyboardistRon "Pigpen" McKernan,the latter musician stayed on with the band as a frontman-percussionist; in light of their mutual abstinence frompsychedelics,they became "as close as two heterosexual males could be," shared a house inNovato, 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 thefolk,blues,andcountry and westernstylings that would largely anchor the band's oeuvre throughout the early 1970s. Although he performed with a full panoply of keyboard instruments (including piano andharpsichord) on 1969'sAoxomoxoa,Constanten initially played a double-manualVox ContinentalIIcombo organon stage before switching to McKernan'sHammond B-3in the spring of 1969; nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the comparatively dulcet timbres of both instruments vis-à-vis guitaristsJerry GarciaandBob Weirin a live performance context: "[T]heir 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. AMerl Saundersor aMelvin Sealscould'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... "[5]

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 theChurch of Scientologythroughout his tenure with the band and thus declined to become re-involved with LSD and other drugs.[6][7]According to band managerRock 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."[8]

Echoing Scully's sentiments, drummerBill Kreutzmannnoted in his 2015 memoir that he "got along really well" with Constanten and thought he was "a cool enough guy"; however, he felt that "[Constanten] had 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... [H]e couldn't trust the music to lead... [I]f 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.[9]Constanten's last concert as a member of the Dead was on January 31, 1970, at the Warehouse inNew Orleans, Louisiana.He played with the band again on April 28, 1971 at the Fillmore East inNew York,which was released on Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead.[10]

Life after the Dead[edit]

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'sTarot,a mime play based on thetarot deckthat was performed at theChelsea Theater CenterinBrooklyn, New York,in 1970. Although a proposedOff-Broadwayrun in Manhattan never occurred, the musicians associated with the project (including Constanten, formerCountry Joe and the FishdrummerGary "Chicken" Hirshand composerPaul Dresher) performed several shows at theVillage Gatebefore relocating toLos Angeles,where they continued to perform as Touchstone, aninstrumental rockband. During this period, Constanten worked on a proposed musical version ofFrankensteinforHairproducerMichael Butler,who also considered mounting a production ofTarot.Touchstone's debut album (Tarot) was released byUnited Artists Recordsin 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."[11][12]

Shortly thereafter, Constanten held a Creative Associate fellowship in composition at theUniversity at Buffalo'snew music-oriented Center of the Creative and Performing Arts during the 1974–1975 academic year. In 1986, he was anartist in residenceatHarvard University.[13][14]He has also taught at theSan Francisco Art Institute.From 1986 to 1993, he was the house pianist for the radio programWest Coast Weekend,playing solo piano and interstitial music.[15]In 1994, he was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Famewith the Grateful Dead. In 1995 he conducted a short tour as "keyboardist for hire" with Western Massachusetts jam band yeP!, performing by surprise with them in the parking lot at the June 15 Grateful Dead concert atFranklin County State AirportinHighgate, Vermont.This was his first time playing Dead-adjacent since he parted ways with them, though he did not interact with the members of the band.

Constanten continues to tour as a solo pianist. He has also played with the reconstituted lineup ofJefferson Starshipas a touring member, most notably during theHeroes of Woodstocktour; several of his performances with the group are showcased in theMick's Picksseries of live albums.[16]He has also sat in with a variety of Grateful Dead tribute bands, includingDark Star Orchestraand Terrapin Flyer. As of 2015, Constanten is a member ofAlphonso Johnson'sJazz Is Dead,an instrumental Grateful Dead cover band that interprets classic Dead songs with jazz influences.[17]After meeting Grateful Dead sound engineerBob Braloveat 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.[18]In 2017, he performed with the Airplane Family & Friends with Live Dead & Riders '69, a band which focuses on the "San Francisco sound"similar to the Dead.[19]

Philosophy[edit]

In 2002, Tom Constanten stated in an interview:[2]

I know of no path that is better marked than the study of music. Maybe I just think so because it's the path I'm on. There's the old question "How come there's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over." Well, here's an answer. Settle down. Do it right. However long it takes. That's the direct route to the fast lane!

Personal life[edit]

Constanten currently[when?]resides inOakland area.In 2012, he recovered from aheart attack.[20]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.[21]

Discography[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^Prendrergast, p. 242
  2. ^abDigital Interviews
  3. ^Strickland,Minimalism: Origins,p. 185–186.
  4. ^Budnick, Dean (December 22, 2023)."Tom Constanten: Dark Stars, Dead Bolts and Dose Hermanos".Relix Media.Archived fromthe originalon December 22, 2023.Retrieved2024-04-16.
  5. ^ab"Constanten on Constanten".Grateful Dead Guide. July 7, 2010.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  6. ^McNally, p. 352
  7. ^Jackson, p. 179
  8. ^Brown, Toni (April 2016)."Rock Scully: Living with the Dead".ToniBrownBand.com. Archived fromthe originalon March 4, 2016.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  9. ^Kreutzmann, Bill;Eisen, Benjy (2015).Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead.New York: St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-1-250-03379-6.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  10. ^Liner notes to Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead
  11. ^"tHrouGh The Looking Glass - Tom Constanten".Archived fromthe originalon 2002-12-26.
  12. ^"Grateful Dead Family Discography: Tarot".
  13. ^"Log In · Digital Collections - University at Buffalo Libraries".
  14. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2015-07-14.Retrieved2014-12-26.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^"Rock N Roll Hall of Famer".Tom Constanten.Retrieved2014-08-20.
  16. ^"Tom Constanten | Credits".AllMusic.
  17. ^"Jazz is Dead to Reform with Tom Constanten".9 June 2015.
  18. ^"Bob Bralove and Tom Constanten: Dose Hermanos' Acoustic _Batique_".19 May 2014.
  19. ^[email protected], Benjamin Cassidy (October 25, 2017)."Past is very much present for Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten".The Berkshire Eagle.Archived fromthe originalon April 16, 2024.RetrievedApril 16,2024.
  20. ^"Walter Tunis: Former Grateful Dead keyboardist returns to region | Lexington Herald-Leader".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-08-15.
  21. ^//http://www.antimusic.com/news/16/August/17Grateful_Dead_Star_Breaks_His_Neck.shtml

General references[edit]

External links[edit]

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