E Street Band
The E Street Band is considered to have started in October 1972, even though it was not officially known as such until September 1974. The E Street Band was inactive from the end of 1988 through early 1999, except for a brief reunion in 1995.
The E Street Band is considered to have started in October 1972, even though it wasn't officially billed and known as such until September 1974.
The original lineup included Clarence Clemons (saxophone), Danny Federici (keyboards, accordion), Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez (drums), David Sancious (keyboards), and Garry Tallent (bass). In the band's earliest days (before it became the E Street Band), Emmy-winning songwriter Bill Chinnock was among its founding members, though he never received official credit as such.
According to a legend, the band took its name from the street in Belmar, New Jersey, where Sancious' mother lived. She allowed the band to rehearse in her home. In fact, Sancious' status as an original member is in doubt, because after recording Springsteen's debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. album with the others, he did not join the tour that began in October 1972. It was not until June 1973 that Sancious began regularly appearing in Springsteen concerts.
In February 1974 Lopez was asked to resign, and was briefly replaced by Ernest "Boom" Carter. A few months later, in August 1974, Sancious and Carter left to form their own band called Tone. They were replaced in September 1974 by Roy Bittan (keyboards), Max Weinberg (drums), and Suki Lahav (violin).
Lahav left in March 1975 when she moved to Israel (where she would later find success as a songwriter and novelist among other things). Steven Van Zandt (guitar, vocals), who had long been associated with Springsteen and had played in previous bands with him, officially joined the band in July 1975.
This lineup remained stable until the early 1980s when Van Zandt left to pursue his own career, a move that was announced in 1984. He would later rejoin the band in 1995. In June 1984 Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocals) was added to replace Van Zandt; Springsteen's future wife, Patti Scialfa (vocals, later guitar) was also added to the lineup.
By 2002 the band also included Soozie Tyrell (violin, vocals). Tyrell had earlier worked with Scialfa touring with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and sporadically with Springsteen dating back to the early 1990s. (Whether Tyrell became as full-fledged a member as the others was and is unclear. Some press releases referred to her as a "special guest",, the cover notes of Live in Barcelona list her as a "with" member, the liner notes of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions refer to her as "violinist with the E Street Band", some press releases don't mention her at all, while Springsteen says in response that "Soozie will be with us.".)
On November 21st, 2007, it was announced that Danny Federici would be taking a leave of absence to battle melanoma. Seeger Sessions band member Charles Giordano will be taking his place for an undisclosed amount of time. Giordano and Soozie Tyrell mark the latest additions to this legendary group.
On occasions the lineup has been augmented by a horn section, sometimes referred to as The Miami Horns. Its most prominent members include The Max Weinberg 7's Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone) and Mark Pender (trumpet).