Barbara Jungfer: Vitamin B-3

German jazz guitarist and composer Barbara Jungfer has been on the European jazz scene for over a decade. Her 2001 release Vitamin B-3 features eight original compositions and one standard in an organ trio format.

The mellow vibe of hollow-body guitar and sustained Hammond chords accentuates the somber mood of Jungfer's songs. The mid-tempo, finger-picked track "Back Home" opens with a blues shuffle. "Dawn Bird" and the Herzog/Holiday standard "God Bless the Child" ease through the middle of the record, sandwiched around the quick shuffle "Eloquence." "Snow Blues" closes with a half-time blues dirge that builds on organ chords and double-stop guitar passages.

Jungfer's chiming jazz guitar perfectly suits the blue mood of the record, whether comping chords behind organ leads or taking melodic lead breaks. Wolfgang Roggenkamp tastefully keeps the Hammond in the background, letting the spotlight shine on Jungfer's guitar. His left-hand basslines on the organ support the trio well. Christoph Schlemmer's light cymbal work fills the high end of the sonic spectrum.

Vitamin B-3 offers nine tracks of traditional electric jazz from a classic organ trio format, recommended to American fans of this style and instrumentation who might not know Jungfer's work.