Moments like these - from #BarbaraDennerlein

FIDELITY online, the online HiFi magazine of FIDELITY Media, regularly takes a look on jazz in it's section "Jazzidelity". In the 30th issue (02/2017) Winfried Dulisch wrote about Barbara Dennerlein and her latest album "My Moments". Looking back he asks: "What became of the small Munich girl that eked out her pocket money in a jazz cellar?

When Babsi was 11, the Christ Child gave her a small organ. Two years later she upstaged full-grown males on a jazz club stage. With 15, she jobbed as band leader during her school holidays. Her debut album appeared quite late, in 1983 the then 19 years old Barbara Dennerlein released the LP "Jazz Live".

The organist has played on every continent and recorded more than three dozen albums. 2016 she presented "My Moments" - her first solo album where Barbara Dennerlein performs on both favourite instruments. "I deeply wanted to record this album at the concert hall of the university of music in Piteå in Northern Sweden. The ceiling can be lowered to gain optimal recording conditions. I don't know a better place for a comparison between electric amplified Hammond and pipe organ."

Piteå's concert organ with 203 registers and more than 9000 pipes is one of the biggest in the world. For the concert recording, a Swedish Hammond collector provided a Hammond C3 for Barbara Dennerlein. Moreover, the organist used her own custom-built bass pedal, that is equipped with MIDI. Barbara Dennerlein: "A solo concert with such a huge technical effort is a big challenge for me every time. I must be concentrated in every second. All organists that play on a pipe organ must be ambidextrous with all four extremities. We play the bass with the feet and the solos and accompaniment with the hands. At the same time the organist varies the registration for a diversified sound. But exactly this is why a solo concert gives me the most possible artistic freedom."

Because of these musical and technical requirements are solo concerts of jazz organists rare. "But soloistic work gives me the best possibilities to act as composer, arranger and sound engineer at the same time." This is why she calls "My Moments" her most personal album, because it sounds unmistakeably Dennerlein.

Likelihood of confusion can occur during listening to the CD. This is because her virtuosity on both instruments makes it difficult for the listener to find out between which CD tracks Barbara Dennerlein changes from the Hammond to the built-in pipe organ.

This moment is not concealed for the DVD connoisseur. The cameras follow the organist's play with hands and feet from several angles. Besides this, the DVD delivers the whole solo performance. The CD contains the highlights of the concert in Piteå."

The printed version of the magazine is available at selected high end Hifi shops and through the magazine's website.

https://www.fidelity-magazin.de/tag/jazzidelity/