I've been a Hammond fan, tinkerer, and really amateur player for about 10 years now, and yesterday was actually the first time I heard a B3 live and in-person. I'm on a three day business trip to Dresden, and was able to come a day early so I could attend a Barbara Dennerlein solo concert. I've been hoping for such an alignment of schedules for a long time, and it finally happened.
First, if you've ever watched Dennerlein on YouTube, you owe it to yourself to see her in person, especially in a small (~140 seats) venue. There's nothing like watching those fingers fly over the keyboard, and feet over the pedals. Unless you're a pretty accomplished jazz organist yourself, it seems almost impossible. The whole time I was watching, I was torn between, "may as well give up now", and, "better start practicing".
Dennerlein's organ is a B3 in a road case, with added MIDI, which lets her play additional voices (I heard piano, vibraphone, and flute), and gives her string bass on the pedals. Unfortunately, as modern technology seems to be prone too, her MIDI setup got zapped by static after the third piece that she played, while she was giving a brief demo of some of the features of her B3. After a brief technical intermission, she got the pedals working again (there's no Hammond bass on her pedals at all), but not the manuals, so the remainder of the concert was 100% Hammond on the keys. Let me tell you, Dennerlein does not _need_ the MIDI toys. She's every bit as expressive on just a "plain" Hammond B3.
The performance was outstanding, and she got two "standing ovations", and played two encores. (I put that in quotes because people didn't actually stand; they thumped their feet on the fllor. Perhaps and actual _standing_ ovation isn't a German thing?)
From the technical side of things, a few things came to my attention. The first was that the key-click on the B3 makes my M100 sound like a diode-keyed transistor organ. I had _no_ idea it was so pronounced. It sounded amazing, but I can see why Laurens Hammond didn't like it if he was trying to reproduce the sound of a church organs. During some parts of some of the pieces she played, the combination of key-click, percussion, and drawbar settings sounded almost like playing a wooden xylophone with hard mallets.
Another thing I noticed was that I could hear her fingers striking the keys, and her feet hitting the pedals. This always bothered me about my own playing, but I figured I just wasn't playing loud enough to drown it out. She was obviously playing much louder than I do, and those added sounds just added to the character of the music.
In several of the pieces, you could see and hear her "playing" the drawbars. She'd be playing the keys with one hand, and changing registrations at the same time with the other, sometimes holding a chord for a long time while changing the sound in real time. This lady absolutely knows how to get the most out of her instrument.
At the end of the concert, I purchased a CD, and got to speak with her for a few minutes. She comes across as a very down-to-earth, likeable, and somewhat shy person. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to see her in concert, even though it was after a transatlantic flight and being up for 36 hours straight. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
First, if you've ever watched Dennerlein on YouTube, you owe it to yourself to see her in person, especially in a small (~140 seats) venue. There's nothing like watching those fingers fly over the keyboard, and feet over the pedals. Unless you're a pretty accomplished jazz organist yourself, it seems almost impossible. The whole time I was watching, I was torn between, "may as well give up now", and, "better start practicing".
Dennerlein's organ is a B3 in a road case, with added MIDI, which lets her play additional voices (I heard piano, vibraphone, and flute), and gives her string bass on the pedals. Unfortunately, as modern technology seems to be prone too, her MIDI setup got zapped by static after the third piece that she played, while she was giving a brief demo of some of the features of her B3. After a brief technical intermission, she got the pedals working again (there's no Hammond bass on her pedals at all), but not the manuals, so the remainder of the concert was 100% Hammond on the keys. Let me tell you, Dennerlein does not _need_ the MIDI toys. She's every bit as expressive on just a "plain" Hammond B3.
The performance was outstanding, and she got two "standing ovations", and played two encores. (I put that in quotes because people didn't actually stand; they thumped their feet on the fllor. Perhaps and actual _standing_ ovation isn't a German thing?)
From the technical side of things, a few things came to my attention. The first was that the key-click on the B3 makes my M100 sound like a diode-keyed transistor organ. I had _no_ idea it was so pronounced. It sounded amazing, but I can see why Laurens Hammond didn't like it if he was trying to reproduce the sound of a church organs. During some parts of some of the pieces she played, the combination of key-click, percussion, and drawbar settings sounded almost like playing a wooden xylophone with hard mallets.
Another thing I noticed was that I could hear her fingers striking the keys, and her feet hitting the pedals. This always bothered me about my own playing, but I figured I just wasn't playing loud enough to drown it out. She was obviously playing much louder than I do, and those added sounds just added to the character of the music.
In several of the pieces, you could see and hear her "playing" the drawbars. She'd be playing the keys with one hand, and changing registrations at the same time with the other, sometimes holding a chord for a long time while changing the sound in real time. This lady absolutely knows how to get the most out of her instrument.
At the end of the concert, I purchased a CD, and got to speak with her for a few minutes. She comes across as a very down-to-earth, likeable, and somewhat shy person. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to see her in concert, even though it was after a transatlantic flight and being up for 36 hours straight. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
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