ROB DeMARTIN
Bruce Springsteen performs at the Amalie Arena in Tampa on Feb. 1, 2023.
Bruce Springsteen kicked off a tour with a 19-piece version of the E Street Band last night, in Tampa.
Who are all these guys? Here’s a guide, with thanks to the excellent brucebase.wikidot.com site for providing some of the background information.
The 10-piece core band is Springsteen, bassist Garry Tallent, guitarists Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, drummer Max Weinberg, keyboardists Roy Bittan and Charlie Giordano, backing vocalist Patti Scialfa, saxophonist Jake Clemons and violinist Soozie Tyrell. (Some of these musicians play other instruments as well and/or contribute to the backing vocals.) Only Springsteen and Tallent have been members of every version of the E Street Band.
Then there are four singers (referred by Springsteen on opening night as “The E Street Choir”) and four horn players, and a percussionist. (There are actually six backing vocalists if you count Scialfa and Tyrell, and five horn players if you count Clemons).
(MARCH 14, 2024 UPDATE: While Scialfa is still officially a band member, she only contributed to three of the group’s 2023 concerts).
The percussionist is Anthony Almonte, who previously has worked mostly with Latin artists but also has played with Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul band.
The singers are:
• Lisa Lowell. Has sung on Springsteen’s Lucky Town, The Ghost of Tom Joad, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions and Devils and Dust albums and toured with Springsteen’s Sessions Band in 2006, in addition to participating in various other Springsteen projects.
• Michelle Moore. Was featured rapping on “Rocky Ground,” from the 2012 Wrecking Ball album, and toured with Springsteen and the E Street Band from 2012 to 2014.
• Curtis King. Extensive experience with Springsteen as a member of the Sessions Band in 2006, the expanded E Street Band in 2009 and 2012-14, and various other projects.
• Ada Dyer. A veteran singer who has worked with Chaka Khan, Sting, Lenny Kravitz and others. The only prior connection to Springsteen I could find is that she and Springsteen both participated in Rainforest Foundation benefit concerts organized by Sting in both 2016 and 2019.
ROB DeMARTIN
Bruce Springsteen at the Amalie Arena in Tampa.
The horn players are:
• Eddie Manion, tenor and baritone sax. A solo artist, member of Little Steven’s Disciples of Soul and former member of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes who has worked with Springsteen, on and off, since the ’70s. Played on the Tunnel of Love Tour in 1988, with the Sessions Band in 2006, and with the expanded version of the E Street Band from 2012 to 2014.
• Curt Ramm, trumpet. Played with the Sessions Band in 2006 and the E Street Band in 2009 and 2012-14.
• Barry Danielian, trumpet. A former member of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Blood, Sweat & Tears and others who was part of the expanded E Street Band from 2012 to 2014.
• Ozzie Melendez, trombone. Veteran session musician who joined the E Street Band at a 2009 concert at Madison Square Garden at which the album The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle was played in its entirety. Has also worked with Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Billy Joel and many others.
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