Born as Reinder Hendrik Vanderby on January 17 1953, Ray Vanderby was being remembered as one of the Orange music fraternity's most talented sons after he succumbed to liver cancer on Friday. He was 69.

He leaves behind his mother Rita and younger sisters Ineke Oliver, Rita Harvey and Henny Williams who remember growing up with an amazing talent that went on to carve a place on the national music scene, but always called Orange home.

"One of the things we're always talking about is he was the youngest professional Hammond organist in Australia at the age of about 14," Mrs Oliver said.

"That's why we are having the celebration of his life at the Hotel Canobolas, that's where he first started off playing at weddings. We used to move his organ and piano from his front bedroom in the back of the family station wagon, drive to the Hotel Canobolas, put it in the lift ..."

Mrs Oliver and Mrs Harvey remember Ray as a member of the scouts, and a racer of bikes and pigeons but it was attending his gigs and shows that left the lasting impressions where they watched a performer and musician who didn't do things by halves.

"Ray was one of those people who, it was basically his way or the highway, he was the leader of the band, most of the time." Mrs Harvey said.

"Whether it was rock and roll, whether it was jazz, blues, whatever, it was always a good show."

The story goes Vanderby's talent was unearthed at the Methodist Church Hall where he listened to a girl play 'Heart and Soul' on a piano. After hearing it just once, he played it note for note.

His parents organised organ lessons and that led to him performing his first show at a fashion show at Dubbo's Myer. He was 12. According to his biography, at 14 he had secured a four-year residency at the Hotel Canobolas where he played for weddings.

"At 14 at weddings he was playing requests. He'd hear a song and he could just repeat it, both hands on the keyboard. He couldn't read music. He still can't," Mrs Oliver said.

It was a similar story when he secured an apprenticeship tuning pianos with former Orange music retailers Palings, one impromptu performance on a demonstration piano secured him the job, which he extended to restoration with Mitch Carter and which he continued until his passing with more than 400 pianos restored.

One of Vanderby's first bandmates, Geoff Cartwright also recalls a man who knew what he wanted but said he enjoyed working with him.

Cartwright says Vanderby gained his first foothold into the Sydney music scene when Australian music legend George Young, of the Easybeats, needed his piano tuned and Palings sent Vanderby.

"ACDC's Malcolm Young went and picked him up and took him out there and he tuned the piano and after tuning it he would play something.

"George Young spun around and said oh shit Ray, you can play. Stevie Wright is looking for a keyboard player, are you interested. Ray went out the next day and auditioned for Stevie Wright and Hard Rain, got the job and went on to play with Doug Parkinson, Marcia Hines, Blackfeather ... he became the go-to keyboard player in Sydney."

Mrs Oliver and Mrs Harvey recall the short period when their brother took lessons.

"But not for very long because he soon discovered he knew more than this guy did so he stopped in his teens," Mrs Oliver said.

"I think the thing that was unique about him too is his wide range of music genres. It was just about from anything. He went through a stage of mood music, the whole quite background music, he's done music with indigenous women, and tribal music that they would normally not have allowed people to do."

Vanderby formed his first band, Eros in 1969 with Cartwright, Joe Neiuwendyk on drums, Albert Calvo on guitar and Bob Carroll on bass and later Stephen Delaney when Cartwright was drafted.

Mr Cartwright described the band as ahead of its time with progressive rock its favoured style.

"The stuff we were playing was way ahead of its time," he said. "We were playing Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, really progressive stuff."

Eros finished second in the 1972 regional final of Battle of the Sounds, moved to Sydney but disbanded in 1973.

Vanderby spent the next few years as a session and touring musician for the likes of Wright, the Doug Parkinson Band, the Marcia Hines Band and he performed with two different line-ups of Blackfeather, and had a brief stint with Band Of Light.

"He's done all genres of music. I think right back in the very early days with Eros, all of that started off with classical music and putting that to rock. He was one of the early ones to start doing that. Changing it just by listening to do it," Mrs Oliver said.

"The thing I thought he really excelled at was the jazz and the blues, with the jazz and blues he would go off on his own tangent. You could sit there and he would just linger one. He could start off with a song but he just keep on going and playing, almost making it up as he'd go along. He'd just get right onto."

Mrs Harvey said her brother loved performing live and did so all over the country, thousands of times, notably with the likes of Jon English, John Paul Young and Marcia Hines.

According to his biography, Vanderby battled his share of demons in a rich and varied life, and was homeless in the late 80s before a stint in rehab enabled him to overcome addiction.

There were other bands along the way, in 1989 he formed the group 98 Degrees, which performed a single Dream On on Countdown while in 1993 he secured a recording contract with New World Productions.

During that time time he released five self-produced albums working with various Aboriginal artists up until 1997. He also recorded albums with his band Cosmic Nomads, before moving to Adelaide where he produced three blues albums, before reforming Cosmic Nomads who carved a niche on the Melbourne pub scene and produced their first of three albums.

In 2008 he moved back to Orange where he continued to record and perform. He also founded the Orange Jazz Club, the Orange Blues Club and in also taught himself to play guitar.

His last album was Comet 2 Comet, a collaboration with prominent artists covering an eclectic range of styles.

At his request, Vanderby's headstone will read "Music was his Passion" which his sisters say sums up his life.

"Back in the 70s in particular, Orange was rich, rich with musicians and bands," Mrs Oliver said, thanking social media page The Old Orange Crew where tributes have flooded in for the man nicknamed Gold Fingers.

"Orange was always home to Ray, regardless of where he went, he always came back to Orange, not just for the family, he really did love this place and it was very good to him," Mrs Harvey said.

The family of Ray Vanderby will hold a private funeral on Friday after which a celebration of his life will be held at the Hotel Canobolas from 4pm to 6pm.

To read more stories, download the Central Western Daily news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.