Dave Matthews Band Saxophonist Dies
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com
The Dave Matthews Band brass has been silenced.
Saxophonist LeRoi Moore, one of the founding members of the Virginia-based jam band, died Tuesday afternoon at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, E! News has confirmed. He was 46.
Exact cause of death is unknown, but it was due to complications from critical injuries that Moore sustained in a June 30 ATV crash on his farm near Charlottesville, Va.
Moore, who suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs at the time, had not performed with DMB since his accident, but had returned to L.A.—where the band is performing tonight at Staples Center—to begin an "intensive physical rehabilitation program," according to a statement released by DMB.
After opening tonight's show with "Bartender," Dave Matthews quieted the audience and informed them that "our good friend LeRoi Moore" had passed away.
"He gave up his ghost to heaven and we will miss him always," the singer said.
DMB then played the sax-heavy "Proudest Monkey," off of 1996's Crash. A solo played by Jeff Coffin, the Béla Fleck & the Flecktones member who has been sitting in for Moore all summer, prompted a huge round of hollers and applause.
"It's easier to leave than be left," Matthews said a couple of songs later.
The band's website is currently set up in homage to its late saxophonist, with its home page reading, "In memory of LeRoi Moore...1961-2008."
Although he seemed to be out of the woods, Moore was rehospitalized July 17 in connection with his injuries.
Moore, a jazz-influenced musician who played bass, baritone, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone, as well as flute, clarinet and penny whistle, was credited with arranging many of the tunes Matthews wrote—songs that nearly always provided chances for the backup players to shine.
"I have plenty of space to improvise, to try new ideas," Moore once said. "It's almost better than a jazz gig."
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