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Benjamin Koppel

Benjamin Koppel, Danish saxophonist and composer, is one of the most award-winning musicians of his generation, known for his versatility and virtuosity.

Koppel’s musical background is deeply rooted in his family and can be as well compared to the musical heritage from the famous Jacksons 5 or even the world known Bach family from Germany. He is the grandson of famous Danish classic composer Herman D. Koppel, and the son of musician and composer Anders Koppel, who had a great success worldwide with the band Savage Rose and is well known for being the greatest Danish beat musician of his generation. The music genre of the family spreads out from classical to jazz and pop genre and Benjamin Koppel masters all the genres with the outmost perfection.

He formed his first band, when he was 15 years old, and has appeared on more than 50 recordings. The variety of his musical collaborations is wide, and has established him as a sought after musician internationally. As a soloist and bandleader, he has performed/recorded with Phil Woods, Kenny Werner, Jim Hall, Joe Lovano, Scott Colley, Daniel Humair, Palle Danielsson, Alex Riel, Miroslav Vitous, Anders Koppel, Inger Dam Jensen, Michala Petri, Adam Nussbaum, Randy Brecker, Chano Dominguez, Charlie Mariano, Portinho, David Sanchez, Sheryl Crow, and others.

In 2000 Benjamin Koppel formed his own independent record label, Cowbell Music that releases high quality jazz music as well as classical, cross over and pop music. Today the business has developed into a music and event bureau producing concert and unique musical experiences in cooperation with different Danish and international enterprises and cultural institutions.

Twice a year, Cowbell arranges two independent jazz festivals – Summer Jazz and Winter Jazz – with a significant trademark of mixing genres and generations on stage. The aim is to communicate jazz in a modern and understandable way – always with some of the most well-renowned jazz musicians in the world.

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7
Album Review

Benjamin Koppel: White Buses: Passage To Freedom

Read "White Buses: Passage To Freedom" reviewed by Doug Collette


If saxophonist/composer/bandleader Benjamin Koppel has proven anything over the last few years, it is that he has no trouble finding sources of inspiration for his work. Whether it is just for the sake of blowing with a redoubtable rhythm section in the form of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade on Perspective (Cowbell Music, 2023) or illustrating his own range of style with The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue (Cowbell Music, 2020) and The Art of The ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

Benjamin Koppel & A Clean Feed Buffet

Read "Benjamin Koppel & A Clean Feed Buffet" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


This episode focuses on several excellent new releases from Clean Feed Records (Mia Dyberg, Ned Rothenberg, Nataniel Edelman, Mikko Innanen, Grzegorz Tarwid, Simon Nabatov, Phillip Greenlief & Mercury) and presents several pieces from Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel's White Buses Passage To Freedom. Koppel's important and stunning album is his interpretation of a World War II event in Denmark involving concentration camp prisoners who were rescued by the White Buses of the Swedish Red Cross. Koppel composed his music around survivor ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

Benjamin Koppel Plays Jazz with a Novelist's Narrative

Read "Benjamin Koppel Plays Jazz with a Novelist's Narrative" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer


Saxophonist Benjamin Koppel talks about Perspective (Cowbell Music), his latest album with KCB Collective (which includes Scott Colley and Brian Blade), and how his collaborators in jazz are part of an extended family. ...

6
Album Review

Anders Koppel: Mulberry Street Symphony

Read "Mulberry Street Symphony" reviewed by Doug Collette


A father-son collaboration at its most sublime, Mulberry Street Symphony is a natural and logical extension of saxophonist/composer Benjamin Koppel's eclectic sets of funk and free improvisation The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue (Cowbell Music, 2020) and The Art of the Quartet (Cowbell Music, 2020). The prolific Dane wisely aligns himself here with redoubtable counterparts in the persons of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade to form the core of a larger musical aggregation including the Odense Symphony Orchestra ...

5
Album Review

Benjamin Koppel: The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue

Read "The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Listen to music long enough, and it's almost bound to happen: You're not sure exactly what you want to listen to, but you know that whatever you listen to needs must bump and groove. The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue, an anthology of American jazz, soul and R&B recorded live at a Copenhagen music festival by Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and his big band, is some first-rate scratch for that itch. Ultimate Soul & Jazz neatly packages Koppel's ...

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Interview

Benjamin Koppel: Curiosity Won't Kill This Cat

Read "Benjamin Koppel: Curiosity Won't Kill This Cat" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


Benjamin Koppel is an extraordinary Danish musician from an illustrious music family. He is all about music—of just about any kind. He's always absorbing it, discovering what there is to derive from it. A kind of restless desire to explore envelops him. He simplifies it in his own words: he's curious. It comes naturally to him. The alto saxophonist is intelligent and unassuming. His influences are broad, but they start with his family. Koppel, a stellar player and ...

5
Multiple Reviews

Benjamin Koppel: Room to Roam

Read "Benjamin Koppel: Room to Roam" reviewed by Doug Collette


In his two simultaneously-released double CDs, Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel illustrates how fine a line exists between authentic rhythm and blues and healthily-improvised jazz. It might otherwise go without saying it takes the caliber of world-class singers and players to traverse such broad and fertile territory-- bassist Scott Colley and trumpeter Randy Brecker are just two—but, credit where credit is due to both the bandleader and his colleagues, they mesh their complementary talents in such a way that the focus ...

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Festival

Valby Summer Jazz Festival Reinvents Jazz In Copenhagen This July

Valby Summer Jazz Festival Reinvents Jazz In Copenhagen This July

Source: Benjamin Koppel

In 2012, many stars such as Randy Brecker, Jim Hall and Lee Konitz gave lustre to Valby Summer Jazz. This year the festival once again strives to reinvent and introduce jazz music to new audiences in meetings between great jazz masters and some of the best classical acts, DJ’s, pop vocalists and crooners. Benjamin Koppel presents his independent sub-festival to the mother festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival from July 5‐14. In 2012 the leading online jazz magazine All About Jazz praised ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Mulberry Street...

Cowbell Music
2022

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Valby Summer Jazz

Improvising Beings
2011

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The Poetic Principle

JazzPA - Summer Jazz Celebration
2010

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What is Poetry?

From: The Poetic Principle
By Benjamin Koppel

Pasadena Pancakes

From: Hammond Street
By Benjamin Koppel

Farewell My Heart, My House

From: Blues and Ballads
By Benjamin Koppel

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