Barbara Dennerlein

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Barbara Dennerlein in Jazzland Vienna , 2005
Barbara Dennerlein at an organ concert in the Michaeliskirche Darmstadt on November 14th, 2011

Barbara Dennerlein (born September 25, 1964 in Munich ) is a German jazz musician.

biography

At the age of 11, Dennerlein received a single-manual electronic organ as a Christmas present and immediately began organ lessons. There, confronted with a Hammond B3 organ , an instrument with two manuals and a pedal , she asked her parents shortly after Christmas to buy a larger organ so that she could learn to play the organ properly.

After about a year and a half, Dennerlein continued his autodidactic training. The first appearances at various events soon followed and, at the age of 15, the first professional engagement in a jazz club during the school holidays. At an early age, she took on the role of band leader in an environment of mostly male and much older musician colleagues with many years of professional experience.

Her early reputation as an organ tornado from Munich led to her first television appearances in 1982, for example in Michael Schanze's show Would you have time for us today? for the promotion of young musical talents (1984). The first record was recorded as a concert recording in 1983, followed by the first studio album a year later. The third album Bebab was released in 1985 on the musician's own label of the same name and was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize, which made her known to a wider audience.

Act

Europe-wide concert tours followed, in 1988 she gave a concert in East Berlin that was broadcast on GDR television, which later appeared illegally on CD . In 1989 their Hammond-B3 was supplemented with MIDI technology, so that external sound generators ( synthesizers , samplers ) could now also be controlled via pedals and manuals . The bass played on the pedal with one or both feet got more bite and has been part of the Dennerlein sound ever since. This playing technique distinguishes Dennerlein from earlier jazz organists like Jimmy Smith , who play the continuous bass accompaniment with their left hand. Dennerlein uses the space he has gained for more frequent changes to the sound settings during the performance, which are also characteristic of her playing.

At the end of the 1980s, various band projects and collaborations arose, including with Jürgen Seefelder , Andreas Witte , Peter Herbolzheimer and Friedrich Gulda , enfant terrible of the classical music scene and cross-border to jazz . In 1989 the CD "Live On Tour" was released with trumpeter Oscar Klein and drummer Charly Antolini (CD Bebab 250965, recorded in Jazzland in Vienna ). In 1994 she dealt with the church organ for the first time at the Bach Days in Würzburg . In the following years a series of concerts with jazz on the church organ resulted, which in 2002 led to the production of an album, which was followed by more in 2008 and 2012 ("Spiritual Movement" series). Since 2003, Barbara Dennerlein and her arranger and saxophonist Peter Lehel have been developing another jazz format with Hammond meets Orchestra in cooperation with symphony orchestras . In 2016 she released "My Moments", an album on CD and DVD in which she played solo on both the Hammond organ and the pipe organ.

Dennerlein mainly plays jazz on the Hammond organ, both solo and in a duo with drum accompaniment as well as with her formation Bebab in trio to quintet line-up. She consolidated her international presence in the second half of the 1990s with three albums released on the international jazz label Verve. For these recordings she won such renowned jazz musicians as Ray Anderson , Randy Brecker , Dennis Chambers , Roy Hargrove , Mitch Watkins and Jeff Tain Watts .

Dennerlein has been composing since the beginning of her career. Her first album, recorded at the age of 18, already contained four original compositions. Stylistically, she treads several paths from the classic blues scheme to romantic-melancholic ballads to tempo-driven compositions that take up elements of swing , bebop and Latin American rhythms . Unlike many of her colleagues, Dennerlein's game is not based on Jimmy Smith. The fast tempo , a frequent feature of her interpretations of well-known standards at the beginning of her career, challenges her to play a demanding bass pedal in numerous of her own pieces. Sometimes paired with tempo, but also in slower pieces, Barbara Dennerlein likes to use odd time signatures and time changes. In the ballads, unconventional changes in harmony develop a narrative, pictorial effect.

Discography

BarbaraDennerlein2010.jpg
  • 1983: Jazz Live
  • 1984: Organ games
  • 1985: Bebab
  • 1986: Days Of Wine and Roses
  • 1987: Tribute To Charlie
  • 1988: Straight Ahead!
  • 1988: Barbara Dennerlein Plays Classics
  • 1989: Live On Tour
  • 1990: Hot Stuff
  • 1990: Jazzbühne Berlin Vol.3: Barbara Dennerlein Duo (distribution not authorized)
  • 1991: (Friedrich Gulda) Mozart No End
  • 1992: That's Me
  • 1992: Solo
  • 1993: B3 (CD with MIDI samples)
  • 1995: Take Off! (DE: Gold in the Jazz Award)
  • 1997: Junkanoo (DE: Gold in the Jazz Award)
  • 1999: Outhipped (DE: Gold in Jazz Award)
  • 2001: Love Letters
  • 2002: Spiritual Movement No. 1 (recorded on the Goll organ at St. Martin in Memmingen )
  • 2004: In A Silent Mood
  • 2005: It's Magic
  • 2006: The Best Of Barbara Dennerlein
  • 2007: Change of Pace (together with the German State Philharmonic Rhineland-Palatinate)
  • 2008: Spiritual Movement No. 2 (live in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin )
  • 2010: Bebabaloo
  • 2012: Spiritual Movement No. 3
  • 2015: studio concert
  • 2015: Christmas Soul
  • 2016: My Moments
  • 2019: Best Of Blues: Through The Years

Movie

  • “Jazz is my whole life.” The musician Barbara Dennerlein. Documentary, Germany, 1997, 42:50 min., Script and direction: Silvia Gutmann, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk , NDR , series: Lebenslinien, announcement by ARD .

Web links

Commons : Barbara Dennerlein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TV recording (1984) promoting young musical talent with Michael Schanze (Youtube)
  2. ↑ Keyboards , ISSN  0178-4641 , 1992, No. 2, pp. 32-38. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Augsburg.
  3. ↑ Marcus A. Woelfle : Barbara Dennerlein. In: Jazzzeitung , 2005, No. 2.
  4. ↑ Ralf Hoffmann: Guarantee of success. Barbara Dennerlein in portrait. ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Okey! Magazine for Organ and Keyboard , 2002, No. 48.
  5. ↑ Gerhard Menzel: Barbara Dennerlein - A busy woman with a feel for the essentials. In: OMM , June 1, 2005.
  6. ↑ Thomas J. Krebs: [1] In: Jazzzeitung , 09/2016.
  7. ↑ Allmusic Guide
  8. ↑ Helmut Peters: Melody-related phase diversity. The Munich jazz organist Barbara Dennerlein in conversation. In: organ - Journal für die Orgel , 2004, No. 1, pp. 46–49. Schott Music International, Mainz.
  9. ↑ Gold / platinum database of the Federal Association of the Music Industry, accessed on June 18, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Dennerlein, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich