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Artist
Tom Constanten
12+ albums
new jerseyUSAusamericanUnited States
about
Tom Constanten (born March 19, 1944 in Long Branch, New Jersey) is an American keyboardist, best known for playing with the Grateful Dead from 1968 to 1970. Known among friends and colleagues as T.C., Tom Constanten studied music at University of California, Berkeley, where he met Phil Lesh. He and Lesh studied composition with Luciano Berio, the Italian modernist composer, and both were influenced by Mahler. Constanten also studied piano with Mario Feninger. In 1967, after graduation, Constanten went to Europe to study with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. In 1964 in San Francisco, Constanten performed with an improvisational quintet formed by Steve Reich, who went on to become an important minimalist composer. The group's unusual style was influenced by both jazz and the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. In a 1964 performance, the ensemble played compositions by both Constanten and Phil Lesh, at which minimalist composer Terry Riley walked out, but later he was willing to have this ensemble perform his well-received piece In C. However, only Reich and one other member of group, saxophonist-composer Jon Gibson, appeared in the piece's premier performance. Constanten was adopted as the seventh member of the Grateful Dead during the recording of the band's second album, Anthem Of the Sun (Warner Brothers, 1968). The pianist was a child prodigy who wrote orchestral pieces as a teenager while growing up in Las Vegas. In the summer of 1961, TC met Dead bassist Phil Lesh
you might also explore
▤Books
▧Games
top songs
albums
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Greatest Hits Of The Smoke-In Vol.1
Grateful Dreams
Nightfall of Diamonds
Morning Dew
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Live from California
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Out On The Rolling Sea - A Tribute To Joseph Spence
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Through the Listening Glass (Live)
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Relix Sampler
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Europe '72 (Live) [2001 Remaster]
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Moved To Stanleyville
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Sonic Roar Shock
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2007-01-12 - Lounge of Best Western Inn