Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of The Band, has died. He was 87. Hudson died early Tuesday in a nursing home near Woodstock, New York, his former manager, Jim Della Croce, confirmed to USA TODAY. Della Croce remembered the late musician as a "brilliant man" and the "glue that made The Band, The Band."

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,

A rustic figure with an expansive forehead and sprawling beard, Mr. Hudson was a classically trained performer and self-educated Greek chorus who spoke through piano, synthesizers, horns and his favored Lowrey organ.