Barbara Dennerlein - The Bebab Records Story....

The Bebab Records Story Barbara Dennerlein founded her own label "Bebab Records" in 1985 at the young age of twenty-one. The name "Bebab" is a contraction of "Barbara" and "Bebop", the latter because she always loved playing Bebop tunes and one of her heroes is the unforgettable Charlie Parker.

At that time Barbara was constantly touring with her quintet (with Hammond organ, alto and tenor saxophone, trombone and drums) for which she composed and arranged most of the repertory.
As Barbara explains,

"I always had my own ideas about music and I refused to make any compromises in order to please people from record companies who may not understand my musical intention. All I wanted was to entertain the audience with the music I was dedicated to. There has always been only one possible way for me: To be honest with myself and the audience."

From the very beginning of her career Barbara knew exactly where she wanted to go with her playing style and how to achieve this goal with her talent.

After her first two albums (produced in co-operation with a German organ company), Barbara's greatest wish was to release an album with her Barbara Dennerlein Quintet. She contacted several distributors and found enough interest to be able to finance her own first production. Bebab Records was born! The album of the same name, "Bebab" - a live recording at the Allotria Jazzclub in Munich - was extremely successful and was honored with the "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik" (German Records Critics Award).

Following this first Bebab success, an album was recorded on the Koala label with Barbara on organ together with Peter Herbolzheimer (Germany's most famous band leader) and his Rhythm Combination And Brass Orchestra. This too was a huge success and received another "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik".
Buoyed by her initial successes Barbara went on to an extremely creative and successful cooperation with Matthias Winckelmann's legendary Enja jazz label.
Photo: Barbara and Cleo, by Andreas Terlaak

Several CDs were released, bringing Barbara attention not only from an increasing number of international fans, but also from the prestigious American Verve/Universal label. This led to three CDs released under the Verve label. On these, Barbara composed, arranged and recorded her music with her dream team - an elite team of American jazz musicians. All of these recordings (and a fourth "Best of..." compilation) are presented on Barbara's homepage under "Recordings".

At the same time as her successful Enja and Verve releases, Barbara was continuously producing for her own label Bebab Records releasing numerous albums in widely different line-ups, from solo to symphonic orchestra, with Hammond or pipe organ, many of which are featured on this site.

Twenty five years later, Bebab Records continues to allow Barbara the independence to keep to her guiding principle: "To be honest with myself and the audience". An excellent example of this artistic honesty is her Bebab release "Solo". As Barbara says,

"For those of my fans who really love the Hammond organ I am recommending my CD "Solo". With this CD you can hear pure Hammond organ sound in a solo concert recorded without any overdubs or studio tricks. I just sat down and played in front of a great audience simply with my modified Hammond organ accompanied by my footpedal bass."

Barbara Dennerlein plays Jazz on the Church Pipe Organ at Rockefeller Chapel, Chicago August 26th, 2009.