Garth Hudson, who played the Lowrey organ, synthesizers, accordion, and woodwind with the Band, died in his sleep this morning (January 21), the Toronto Star reports. Hudson’s estate executor confirmed the news to The Star. Hudson was 87 years old.

Eric “Garth” Hudson was born to musician parents in Windsor, Ontario, before the family moved to London, Ontario, and enrolled him in formal piano and theory training from a young age. In his early twenties, to his parents’ alarm, he joined Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm in a rock band called the Hawks, assuaging his parents by stipulating that the group pay him an extra $10 a week for music lessons. He was the lineup’s final addition, joining fellow Canadians Robbie Robertson, Rich Manuel, and Rick Danko, as well as Helm and the soon-to-depart Hawkins; Hudson would go on to be the last surviving member of the Band. Impressed with their live energy, Bob Dylan hired the Hawks in 1965 to be his backing band. They played on his electric tour in 1966, developing material for Blonde on Blondeand the sprawling Basement Tapes. Minus Dylan, the group released its first album as the Band in 1968, Music From Big Pink. The record included “The Weight,” now a classic, as well as the Band’s versions of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” and the murder ballad “Long Black Veil.”