Charles Giordano (born October 13, 1954) is an American
keyboardist
A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...
and
accordionist
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
.
Giordano is known primarily for his work with
Bruce Springsteen as a member of the
E Street Band
The E Street Band is an American rock band, and has been musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. For the bulk of Springsteen's recording and performing caree ...
,
replacing
Danny Federici
Daniel Paul Federici (January 23, 1950 – April 17, 2008) was an American musician, best known as the organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player and a founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. In 2014, Federici was posthumously induct ...
as the band's organist following the latter's serious illness and death in 2008 and as a member of Springsteen's
The Sessions Band. He is also known for playing keyboards with
Pat Benatar
Patricia Mae Giraldo ('' née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum al ...
in the 1980s.
With Benatar he was usually billed as Charlie Giordano and played for five albums, beginning in 1983;
his role in the band was praised by ''
Billboard'' magazine.
With Benatar he was identifiable by his glasses and distinctive array of berets, blazers and 1980s-style ties. Giordano also was a member of
The David Johansen Group
David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work unde ...
and went on to perform with
Buster Poindexter and The Banshees of Blue.
As a
session musician Giordano's playing has included
Madeleine Peyroux's 1996 album ''
Dreamland'' and
Bucky Pizzarelli
John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli (January 9, 1926 – April 1, 2020) was an American jazz guitarist.
He was the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and double bassist Martin Pizzarelli. He worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1971) ...
's 2000 album ''
Italian Intermezzo''; the latter's mix of opera, Italian folk, and swing presaged his appearance in the similarly genre-mashing Sessions Band Tour with Springsteen. Giordano also participated in a 2002 revival of
garage rock band
? and the Mysterians. In 2008, he accompanied British singer
Barb Jungr for a short stand in a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
.
Tours with Bruce Springsteen
*
Seeger Sessions Tour with the Sessions Band (2006)
*
Magic Tour with the E Street Band (2007–2008)
*
Working On A Dream Tour
The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album '' Working on a Dream''. This was the first ...
with the E Street Band (2009)
*
Wrecking Ball Tour
The Wrecking Ball World Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to promote Springsteen's seventeenth studio album, ''Wrecking Ball'', which was released on March 5, 2012. It was the first tour for the E Street Band with ...
with the E Street Band (2012–2013)
*
High Hopes Tour with the E Street Band (2014)
*
The River Tour 2016
The River Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in support of Springsteen's 2015 '' The Ties That Bind: The River Collection'' box set and in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Springsteen's 1980 album, '' The ...
–
Summer '17 with the E Street Band (2016–17)
Discography
With
James Carter
*''
Chasin' the Gypsy'' (Atlantic, 2000)
With
Bruce Springsteen
*''
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions'' (2006)
*''
Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band: Live in Dublin'' (2007)
*''
Magic Tour Highlights'' (2008)
*''
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park'' (2010)
*''
Live from the Carousel'' (2011)
*''
Wrecking Ball
A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. It was most commonly in use during the 1950s and 1960s. Several wrecking companies claim to have invented the wrecking ball. An e ...
'' (2012)
*''
High Hopes'' (2014)
*''
''American Beauty'''' (2014)
*''
Western Stars'' (2019)
*''
Western Stars: Songs From The Film'' (2019)
*''
Letter to You
''Letter to You'' is the twentieth studio album by Bruce Springsteen. Released in October 2020, it was Springsteen's first new studio album with the E Street Band to be released since 2014's '' High Hopes''. ''Letter to You'' was met with ...
'' (2020)
With Pat Benatar
*''
Get Nervous'' (1982)
*''
Live from Earth'' (1983)
*''
Tropico'' (1984)
*''
Seven the Hard Way'' (1985)
*''
Wide Awake in Dreamland'' (1988)
*''
True Love'' (1991)
References
1954 births
Musicians from Brooklyn
Living people
American people of Italian descent
E Street Band members
20th-century American keyboardists
American male organists
American accordionists
21st-century accordionists
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century organists
The Sessions Band members
American organists
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