Official Website of Barbara Dennerlein, Jazz Organist (2025)

"The Blues is incredibly diverse and can be played in so many different ways. The Blues feeling is perceptible in every moment in my music. The Blues is a source of inspiration and expression of my deepest feelings."
Barbara Dennerlein

It is unmistakable, the blues is in her blood. She masterfully elicits the Blue Notes from her Hammond B3. Her intense blues feeling and her versatility come into their own on this compilation. Barbara Dennerlein spans a range from the traditional to the experimental in nine recordings from 1985 to 2014 - in different instrumentations - in studio and live.

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Music is like a jewel, presenting us numerous precious moments - moments of happiness and infinite joy, love and freedom.

Let me take you into the exciting world of pipes and tonewheels to enjoy the spirit of the mighty pipe organ and her sister, the soulful Hammond organ.

Take a moment, sit down, relax and listen, and be happy.

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It was such a great fun to play with these musicians because we understand each other so well, musically but also on the personal side, and I think you can hear that in the music.

I love this instrument. The old Hammond organs have soul. Every tone sounds differently. It's not that the sounds are the same, they live.

It's an album you can not only listen to at Christmas time. I think you can listen to it all over the year because it sounds like old jazz standards.

Enjoy the music!
Barbara Dennerlein

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"Germany's most famous female Jazz export, the magnificent Barbara Dennerlein, renowned for her virtuosity on the Hammond B3, has been performing more and more concerts on pipe organs in recent years. At the Austrian festival "Most & Jazz", presented by Toni Eder, she bedazzled the audience demonstrating the kind of groove the massive pipe organ is capable of. Together with the formidable guitarist Edi Köhldorfer, Barbara thrilled the audience with passion, high energy and technical brilliance.

This exhilarating concert has finally been captured on this CD, and will delight the listener with sublime ecstasy of tonal colours and delicate groove. This performance with its spirituality and earthiness, united in such a sophisticated way, is a great moment that would be a shame to miss."

(Samir H. Köck, Music Journalist)

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Fasten your seatbelts and put your ears in an upright position!

Barbara Dennerlein welcomes you on bord of BEBABALOO to an enjoyable roundtrip over her wide-ranging musical landscape.

With the 25th CD the artist is celebrating her 35th anniversary as a jazz organist and composer. The unique atmosphere of the Heidenheim Engine Shed, the irrepressible spirit of the musicians and the enthusiastic audience made the concert evening in May 2009 a magic moment of Jazz.

The intensive involvement of the organist with the entire recording process - she personally did all the editing and mixing in her personal recording studio with the painstaking and meticulous care she is known for - resulted in a recording that is a special treasure in both musical and technical sound aspects.

The interaction between the three musicians (sounding like a quartet with Barbara's mastery of the footpedals) is inspired and confident ...a musical dream-team. On her new CD Barbara Dennerlein presents nine originals in a wide range of styles. She is accompanied by Peter Lehel (sax) and Marcel Gustke (dr).

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On her new CD "Spiritual Movements No.2" Barbara Dennerlein pays homage to one of the most historically significant places in Germany: the Emperor William Memorial Church in Berlin.

Recorded on November 16th , 2007 on its grand Schuke-Organ, Barbara's extraordinary artistry, masterful technique, and her uncompromising pursuit of intensity, drive, and the intoxication of timbre are on full display.

It's jazz pure, delivered in Barbara's unmistakably audacious and unrestrained style. All this, along with her meticulous attention to detail, create an unrivaled and unique selling point in the jazz world.

Get ready for some phenomenal grooves from the exalted choir loft!

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Barbara Dennerlein & Philharmonic Orchestra: Change of Pace - The development of a fundamentally new musical dimension

Barbara Dennerlein, assuming the role of organist, composer, musical consultant, and independent producer, presents this remarkable project, bringing together an organ jazz trio with a philharmonic orchestra.

This live CD of the concert on June 1, 2005 in the Philharmonic of Essen treasures the wide-ranging musical adventure of the collaboration between the Barbara Dennerlein Jazz Trio and the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate under the direction of Bernd Ruf.

She herself has said: "The convergence of classical music and jazz that I became acquainted with during my long years of collaboration with Friedrich Gulda has always fascinated me. The project "Change Of Pace" is very dear to me and represents the fulfillment of a long cherished dream. Even as I composed the titles 'Change of Pace' and 'Pendel der Zeit' (Pendulum of Time), I imagined how terrific it would be to perform these pieces with a philharmonic orchestra.

The freedom in a jazz formation to improvise combined with the unbelievably rich sound of an orchestra playing from a score is extremely exciting to me. It was indeed a great experience and a challenge for me, though I must admit that first and foremost it was fun. That is also my appeal to the listener: Don't over-think things, but have fun with challenging music!".

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"Honesty, integrity and freedom: these, I'm convinced, are the pillars in music that people are touched by. Music that you produce as a free and improvisational artist has this quality, whether it's on a stage, in the studio or amongst friends in private."

Giving free rein to creativity. Writing compositions and arrangements that follow the demands of music, not the budget. Producing without compromises. And working together with musicians that belong to the crème de la crème on the international jazz scene.This is how the three CD albums for Verve/Universal have been recorded in New York,and they all received Jazz awards: Take Off !, Junkanoo, Outhipped

"With these recordings one of my musical dreams came true: my very own music, played by myself and my personal "dream team"."

For this CD Barbara Dennerlein selected the best of these recordings.

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"Music is the art form which allows feelings, moods and reflections on the time in which we live, to be converted into sounds. Music has the quality of being able to arouse those feelings and moods within us, to reach our hearts and communicate with our senses. This is a feature of all great art forms, which touch our soul and our senses."

Barbara Dennerlein is such a sound artist who has been bringing her audience to new great achievements in terms of music for a good quarter of a century. For ten years she has been brilliantly supported and accompanied by Daniel Messina on drums. The "triumphant march" of the Barbara Dennerlein duo leads back and forth across the continents and leaves enthusiastic listeners everywhere.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of this collaboration, we hear on this live recording from the Kunstfabrik Schlot in Berlin the perfectly coordinated playing of two excellent musicians, the richness of color and the variety of their sounds, but above all the thrilling joy of playing that creates a pleasant shower when the Intoxication in which the two play each other, also leaps to the audience. May we still experience many more magical moments like this!

Virtuoso jubilation for the 10th duo birthday

She is the grand dame at the Hammond organ B3, solo, with orchestral accompaniment, various ensembles - and for eleven years in a duo with the drummer and percussionist Daniel Messina. The two celebrated ten years of joint creativity with a concert, the recording of which is now available as an album: Barbara Dennerlein Duo - 10th Anniversary "It's Magic". The two got to know and appreciate each other because after a concert by Dennerlein with Friedrich Gulda in 1994, the Argentine Daniel Messina did everything in his power to meet this exceptional artist and to be able to work with her. It succeeded, and the anniversary is now being celebrated opulently with this album.

Barbara Dennerlein has again composed all the pieces for the CD herself, as has been proven, and because it was such a special occasion, the two of them were able to record "It's Magic" live at a concert recorded by Deutschlandfunk in the Berlin art factory Schlot in October 2004. The result of the atmospherically dense performance of the wonderfully coordinated, musically convincing duo is captivating with its more than 75 minutes. Small bites are not served from the buffet, as is usually the case with anniversaries - here the menu consists of seven rich courses, which are prepared and richly garnished with enthusiasm, virtuosity, enormous verve and all the best possible individual design options.

Barbara Dennerlein always seems to be getting better (which is actually not possible), how inspired she whirls over keyboards and foot pedals, creates mysterious sounds, surprising effects like a deceptively real sounding vibraphone part and lets the sonority of her Hammond B3 in all its facets enter into a rapid marriage with Messina's congenial playing of drums and percussion. New heights are constantly being reached, and if you think, "Phew, it doesn't get any better, hotter, more skillful and more spirited" - you get another boost. Or a soulful blues like "The Long Way Blues" immerses musicians and listeners in a relaxed, feel-good bath. Great - and congratulations on the anniversary.

© 2005 - Online Musik Magazin, Frank Becker

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A musical voyage of self-discovery

Barbara Dennerlein allowed herself sufficient time to give musical expression to her innermost thoughts and aspirations and to capture these on this strikingly original and verypersonal CD. "In a Silent Mood" provides a revealing insight into her musical personality, as she energetically celebrates the free flow of musical ideas which mirror her remarkablecareer as a brilliant exponent of the organ.

We are treated to the inspired creativity of her own, well-crafted compositions, a colourful tapestry of melodies, suspenseful mood changes and moments of peace and tranquillity.

Barbara Dennerlein's playing reflects her own musical development. At home, in her own studio, in a most secluded atmosphere, free from pressure and outside interference, she allows her creativity full rein. And all the time she brings out the full sound of her unique, modified Hammond B3 organ, with its rich tonal colours and surging footpedal bass lines.

"In a Silent Mood" is the precious product of an extremely creative mind, put together with excellent taste and finesse and making effective use of multifarious musical shades. It is the handwriting of a mature artist.

Barbara Dennerlein shows herself on this CD (...) from a completely different, very personal side. (...) such recordings require artistic personality. We experience a lot of that on "In A Silent Mood".

(OKEY Nr.61 November/Dezember 2004)

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