Friday, September 25, 2009

BARBARA DENNERLEIN,HAMMOND ORGAN VIRTUOSO



Internationally celebrated Hammond organ virtuoso Barbara Dennerlein was bon on September 25,1964 in Munich,Germany. Her CDs have won numerous awards, including the German Record Critics Award. Her CD "Take Off" (Verve/Universal) even reached number 1 in the jazz charts and was the best-selling German jazz album of the year.
Barbara Dennerlein belongs to the small circle of German artists of international repute. On her recordings and in her concerts, she stands out as a member of a new generation of jazz musicians, and is regarded by her peers and her audiences alike as one of the leading representatives of her instrument, the legendary Hammond B3.


It is an awe-inspiring experience to watch Barbara live on stage. As the most important and most successful German jazz export, she is familiar with large international festival stages and intimate clubs alike.


A list of venues where she has wowed audiences is as varied as it is long: the "Blue Note" and the "Sweet Basil" in New York, "Ronnie Scott's Club" and the "Jazz Café" in London and the "Blue Note" in Tokyo; Philadelphia, Berkley, San Jose, San Diego; the Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Victoria jazz festivals; European festivals in The Hague, the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, the Molde Jazz in Norway, the Arhus Jazz Festival in Denmark, the Maastricht-Kortrijk Festival in Belgium, the Vitoria Festival de Jazz in Spain, and German festivals in Berlin, Frankfurt, Leverkusen, Nuremberg, Vilshofen, Burghausen, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover and many others. Besides her nearly endless live performances, Barbara has made numerous appearances on both domestic and international radio and TV.


Both with her own "Bebab" group and solo, Barbara is equally celebrated by critics and audiences alike on both sides of the Atlantic. The name "Bebab" is a play on "Bebop" and "Barbara" and indicates something unique for which there is no established term, no pigeonhole. She knows the value of tradition but is also at home in modern jazz, in the here and now. She is one of the few musicians who can make the connection between different styles and audiences, building bridges between the musical past and present. She is just as familiar with the grooves of youth culture as with the listening experiences of a generation that grew up with the Hammond organ boom of the fifties.


Swing, bebop, blues, soul, latin and funk - for Barbara there are no rigid boundaries, only fluid transitions. Audiences are captivated by her talent, her absolute mastery of the instrument, her taste, and not least, her warm personality. The B3, it would seem, is a seamless extension of herself. She understands better than anyone how to exploit her instrument to the full, creating a sound and a musical style that is unmistakably "Barbara Dennerlein".



Her brilliant technique has breathed new life into the venerable Hammond organ, an instrument long neglected in modern jazz. She can rightfully claim to have paved the way for the organ's current renaissance in jazz.



Barbara plays "Swing the Blonde"




Reference - German Jazz

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