Barbara Dennerlein

Last night I caught Barbara Dennerlein's second set at the Dakota.

Barbara Dennerlein is one of the world's great masters of the Hammond B3 Organ. While her repertoire covers jazz standards, improvisation, contemporary original composition, and liturgical music (on a pipe organ) this set was made up of her own jazz, blues, and funk compositions.

I was too caught up in the experience to write down the set list. Here are the titles I remember: Fly Away, Farewell to Old Friends, Grandfather's Funk, and Funkish. She opened with a number with "Jimmy" in the title, a reference to Jimmy Smith.

This show was like going to church. It was a fantastic moving experience. Dennerlein plays with her eyes closed moving in an ecstatic trance. She plays the entire instrument using the entire foot pedals, Leslie controls, and draw bars to get her sound.

One of her solos was done entirely on the foot pedals. I have seen some of the acknowledged greats of the instrument (Booker T. Jones, Joey DeFrancesco, and Dr. Lonnie Smith) and I have never seen or heard anything like this.

She was accompanied by a great saxophonist and drummer. Both are local musicians. Please add a comment if you know their names. Joe Pulice was on drums and Pete Whitman on sax. They are both players to look out for. The musicality presented was incredible. Especially when you consider that this trio hasn't played together regularly. There were sections where the organ and the horn played call and response. I am not an accomplished musician so it was amazing to me when Dennerlein and the saxophone played the same line together in the middle of a complex improvisation. I could see the horn player looking at his score while Dennerlein swayed behind her organ eyes closed.

I am not sure if she has ever played the Twin Cities before or if she will again. I am so happy that I took the time to see this show. I do not know when I would be able to see her play again. I hope it won't be too long a wait.

All of the Jazz lovers and organ aficionados in the audience were talking before the show about the huge amount of organ shows this week. It turns out that the American Guild of Organists is having their annual convention in the Twin Cities. This could be what brought Barbara Dennerlein to the Cities.

Later this week Tony Monaco will be playing at the Dakota at 10:30 on Thursday and again in Peavey Plaza on Friday at 9:30. Friday's show is a free open air concert. I understand that Tony will be playing with Captain Jack McDuff's band. I hope to attend at least one of these shows.