Senior keyboards player and accordionist P. D. Francis died in Thrissur on Thursday. He was 65.

One of the first keyboards players in Thrissur, he was a close associate of composer G. Devarajan and a key member of his orchestra. He had played the keyboards for Devarajan’s songs such as Arikil neeyundayirunnenkil.

He had also played the keyboards for recordings of Shyam, Mohan Sithara, Bollywood drummer-arranger Babla and many other composers, and for albums brought out by the Tarangini Studio, where he worked for four years.

He had played the keyboards for stage programmes (ganamelas) of M. S. Viswanathan, V. Dakshinamurthy, T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela, P. Jayachandran, Madhuri, S. Janaki and Krishnachandran.

He was the orchestra director of the Kalasadan Orchestra, Thrissur, Elite Orchestra and Coimbatore Elite Orchestra.

He was initiated into piano and accordion playing by Fr. Malcolm of the Calvary church.

He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

The funeral will be held later.