Leroi Moore 1961-2008.

It is with a heavy heart that I talk about the passing of a great musician in one of the best performing musical groups in the world. On Tuesday, LeRoi Moore, saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band, passed away due to complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an ATV accident in June. The band continued touring throughout LeRoi's recovery, with Jeff Coffin of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones filling in for Moore.

With the sadness of their friend's passing on their hearts and minds last night, the band still took the stage in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. They paid tribute to LeRoi by playing many songs that had his presence all over them, including: "Bartender," "Grey Street," "Everyday," "Ants Marching," and a cover of the sax-heavy Peter Gabriel classic, "Sledgehammer."

While his playing was often subtle, and beneath the surface, almost going unnoticed on the albums due to his ability to blend it with the band's several varying instruments, LeRoi was able to shine most during the band's countless live performances. With the free ability to extend their solos into other worldly jams, while attracting a cult-like following of millions of fans, Dave Matthews Band has become the Grateful Dead of the last 20 years. The main difference has been with the more extended crossover success the Band has garnered that the Dead only saw later in their career with their only commercial success, "Touch of Grey."

I feel lucky to have been able to see the band perform live on several occasions, and to also have been able to see them at one of the biggest shows of their career, when they played a free concert in Central Park in September of 2003. While Dave Matthews, drummer, Carter Beauford, and violinist Boyd Tinsley have always been the more animated and outspoken members of the band, bassist Stephan Lessard and LeRoi are the two who were off to the back, keeping the ship steady. His sax playing, along with Tinsley's violin, are what have given the band one of the most unique sounds in popular music today. What Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips do in the studio for the shape shifting and contortion of great music, these men have done live on stage since the early 1990's.

Without the unique combination of sound LeRoi helped the band create, Dave Matthews would be like the Eagles or Jackson Browne, with a ceiling to his potential. Being complimented by one of the most talented and unique rhythm sections in music today, Matthews has become a superstar. With musicians like LeRoi Moore out there with him putting on shows for the masses, the audience could always feel confident in knowing that they would see something musically unique and special on any given night. Rather than the same repeated guitar or piano solos, or the same 4 minute long songs over and over, he helped make concert going an experience again. With the vast number of live recordings and concert films the Dave Matthews Band has released since the mid 1990's, his legacy will forever live on, and will undoubtedly continue to influence the band in a future without one of their founding members.

I'm including here some links to great performances by LeRoi, "Bartender" being one of the songs he is best featured on.

Bartender (Boulder, Colorado 2001) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lS4EoTY1nQ

Too Much (Central Park, New York 2003) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGqwSAVm3Ls

Warehouse (Central Park) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-TtHCJm44s&feature=related

Here is the setlist from the band's show last night:
Bartender
Proudest Monkey
Satellite
So Damn Lucky
Eh Hee
Water Into Wine
Burning Down The House
Dancing Nancies
Loving Wings
The Maker
Sledgehammer
Grey Street
Dreaming Tree
Crash Into MeEveryday
Anyone Seen The Bridge
Too Much Intro
Ants Marching
Encore:
Sister
Corn Bread
Two Step