Happy Birthday, Danny Federici!

The electric guitar in the hands of anyone who can turn an amp to 10 and play a power chord is ideal for communicating raw power; in the hands of better players, it can be much more nuanced, of course.

The pedal steel guitar, of course, shines at capturing sadness.

The bagpipes, with their limited dynamics and nine-note scale, have a limited vocabulary - they stir the savage beast, or (listen to Amazing Grace at a funeral) they drive him to tears. Of course, they excel at both.

But of all the instruments of the rock and roll era, there is nothing like the Hammond B-3. With all the stops pulled and the pedal literally on the metal, overdriving a Leslie rotary speaker, the B-3 howls like a hurricane; dialed back and with the fingers of a skillful player dancing around both ranks of keys, they are pure funk, and can play most of the parts in a jazz combo. And always, in the background, the sweet purr or the keening moan of the B-3 sets a mood behind a band like no other instrument in the lineup.

There are a lot of great Hammond B-3 players out there; Jon Lord, Billy Preston, Nick Mason, Benmont Tench, and clubs full of great jazz, funk and gospel players.

But my favorite has always been Danny Federici of the E Street Band, who turns 56 today.

You could argue that there are better organ parts out there than his wonderful figuring in the chorus of "Incident on 57th Street" (from The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, the mighty B3 wind behind the "...strap your hands across my engines!..." line in "Born To Run", or especially pretty much every single cut on Darkness On The Edge Of Town. You could.

But you'd be wrong.

Happy Birthday!