ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy dies

The keyboardist for Electric Light Orchestra has died.

Richard Tandy was 76.

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Tandy’s death was announced by bandmate Jeff Lynne who called Tandy his “longtime collaborator” and remarkable musician & friend.”

Lynne did not say how or when Tandy died.

The New York Times reported that Tandy initially played harpsichord in a band with future ELO drummer Bev Bevan. Tandy joined ELO, at first playing bass, but then switching to keyboard when Roy Wood left the group, the BBC reported.

Tandy played several different instruments on what the Times called the band’s most famous songs.

He played a “funky clavinet riff that duels with the group’s vocals during the chorus,” on “Evil Woman.” He also played the riff on “Mr. Blue Sky” and added synthesized vocals to the song.

Bevan told BBC Radio WM, “He was a really dedicated musician. He really studied his craft.”

Bevan, Tandy and Lynne stuck together, with the latter two co-arranging the strings on several songs, until the band broke up in 1986, selling more than 50 million albums, five of which made it to Billboard’s top 10.

Lynne got the band, including Tandy, back together in 2014, the BBC reported.

“Tandy was crucial in ELO’s creation of a realm where rock and classical music could exist together,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

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