E-Street Band Loses Its First Member

[jillian]

Thought some of the bruce-folk on the board might be interested in this. Very sad.

Danny Federici, the longest-serving member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Thursday afternoon at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York after a three-year battle with melanoma. He was 58.

Keyboardist Federici, a Flemington native, played his last full show with the band in Boston in November before beginning treatment. Veteran session musician Charles Giordano replaced him at subsequent shows.

Federici made a poignant final appearance with the band last month in Indianapolis, playing on eight songs, including "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," which spotlighted his atmospheric accordion playing.

When Springsteen made his induction speech as a new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, he acknowledged every member of his E Street Band individually, with a few warm, well-chosen words. He described Federici as "the most instinctive and natural musician I ever met" and told him, "Your organ and accordion playing brought the boardwalks of Central and South Jersey alive in my music."

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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/e_street_band_member_danny_fed.html