Roy J. Bittan (born July 2, 1949)[1] is an American[2] musician best known as a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.[3] Nicknamed "The Professor",[2] Bittan joined the E Street Band in 1974. He plays the piano, organ, accordion and synthesizers.[3][4] Bittan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of the E Street Band.[5]
Aside from his membership in the E Street Band, Bittan has worked as a session musician for singer-songwriters and rock and pop artists.
Life and career
Bittan was born in Queens, New York[2] and is Jewish.[6] He is a longtime member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and has performed on the majority of Springsteen's albums, beginning with Born to Run (1975). In Springsteen's band introductions, Bittan's "Professor" moniker was given because (supposedly) he was the only member of the group with a college degree. Bittan provided background vocals for most of the songs on Born to Run, along with Steven Van Zandt. His voice is also featured slightly on the vocal weaving in "Out in the Street". However, from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour on, his voice was no longer used.[citation needed] When Springsteen decided to break his connection with the E Street Band in 1989, Bittan was the only member he retained.[3]
With the E Street Band, Bittan uses a Yamaha grand piano, preferring the bright sound to cut through the group's sound compared with other acoustic models. He has also been known to use Yamaha, Korg and Kurzweil keyboards as part of his live rig. Bittan is an avid accordion player, which was a skill he seldom used with the E Street Band until he played "American Land" as the closing number on the 2007–2008 Magic Tour and later played the instrument on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" after the death of bandmate Danny Federici.
Bittan influenced the sound Stevie Nicks created for her solo debut away from Fleetwood Mac, Bella Donna (1981). About the time that the album reached number one in the United States (and Springsteen's The River Tour concluded), Bittan joined as a sideman on a short tour with Nicks along with some of the other top musicians of the day: Benmont Tench on organ, bass guitarist Bob Glaub, Waddy Wachtel on guitar, Russ Kunkel on drums, and Bobbeye Hall on percussion. Bittan also played on Nicks' second solo album The Wild Heart and has continued to play with her sporadically.
^Schinder, Scott; Schwartz, Andy (2007). Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. Greenwood. p. 323. ISBN978-0313338458.