Solo Project Barbara Dennerlein Duo Barbara Dennerlein & Bebab Jazz Meets Church Organ Barbara Dennerlein & Big Band Hammond Meets Orchestra Dennerlein Presents
DennerleinTwo Ladies Of The Hammond Organ:
Barbara Dennerlein & Rhoda ScottBarbara Dennerlein Meets
Ignatz Netzer & Thomas Scheytt
4285 organ pipes start to swing when Barbara Dennerlein swirls over the four manuals and 32 pedal keys of the Goll church organ with her hands and feet, treasured on her CD "Spiritual Movements No. 1". On her church organ tours around the world, the artists transfers her organ play in masterful manner to the "queens of musical instruments" while each one of them is an individual to be discovered. With jazz on the church organ Barbara Dennerlein covers new ground and is about to establish a new concert tradition.
Jazz Meets Church Organ - Barbara Dennerlein's latest CD release "Spiritual Movement No.1" An artist approaches the mighty church organ - with respect, with passion and with a prodigious enthusiasm for elaborate extemporisation - the essential quality which makes Jazz a constantly renewed and reinvigorated art form.
Barbara Dennerlein is well aware that her regular instrument, the Hammond organ, is a descendant of a sacred and formidably powerful forerunner, the mighty church organ. Weaving innovative patterns in jazz while including inspiration from the past, the Munich- based artist explores new instrumental terrain and generates a fresh and surprising quality in the melodies and sound qualities she produces from the queen of instruments.
"Spiritual Movement No. 1" is an intense and disciplined work and, notwithstanding the improvisational virtuosity, is very much an arranged and ordered performance. Unintimidated by this formidable instrument, Barbara Dennerlein is at all times in full command and covers the entire range of the great Goll-organ pipes at St. Martin in Memmingen.
The album consists of ten exciting original compositions created by Barbara Dennerlein specifically for church organ. It is not simply an experiment to transfer the Hammond B3 way of playing to the four mighty manuals of the Goll-organ nor the mere adaptation of jazz standards to an instrument with many more keys than the Hammond. Even with the cheerful swinging 1929 evergreen of "Ain't Misbehavin' " we discover an ingenuity in the sound production and technical resourcefulness which is only feasible on a church organ.
With her meticulous use of the special sound colours of the pipe organ, Barbara Dennerlein shows herself to be a true artist. The flowing variations of volume, tempi and rhythm of this 78-minute solo performance result in a vibrant and suspense-laden jazz session. On none of her CDs to date has Barbara Dennerlein's unique foot pedal been as much in evidence as it is on the 32 pedals of the Goll-organ, either as an essential, groove-creating background or as a solo offering.
In "Spiritual Movement No. 1", Barbara Dennerlein is working on a new concept of bringing Jazz to the church organ - a future-orientated project of which this splendid recording is just the beginning. The word "Spiritual" in the title represents the sacred element in instrumentation, manner of composing and playing; "Movement" means refusal to accept a standstill and No.1 indicates that this is a precursor to future projects of this kind, the product of a continuing development which will lead towards "Spiritual Movement No. 2".
