danny federici, longtime keyboard player for bruce springsteen and the e street band, passed away yesterday from melanoma. it’s a tremendous loss, and i’m tearing up looking at the video on springsteen’s site, which shows phantom dan playing accordion on sandy one last time, weeks before his death:

i play piano, so i have always paid close attention to the keyboard players out there. and federici was a class act, whether he played glock, organ, or piano. and no one will ever play that solo in sandy like he did. it may be done note-for-note, but as far as i’m concerned, that’s his.

i will miss him.