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Release Date: 20 February 2026
Label: Storyville Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 717101437023
Genres: Jazz Contemporary
Description
With a career spanning more than six decades, Danish saxophonist Karsten Vogel is one of the true veterans of Scandinavian music. On Late Night Ballads, recorded with pianist Mads Sondergaard, bassist Peter Hansen and drummer Klaus Menzer, Vogel turns his focus inward, returning to the core of his jazz roots with a deeply reflective and intimate recording. Vogel interprets seven classic ballads from the American songbook alongside one original composition. Late Night Ballads unfolds in the quieter hours, offering music that is atmospheric, lyrical, and deeply contemplative. With Sondergaard, Hansen, and Menzer providing understated yet highly assured accompaniment, the performances unfold with elegance and restraint. Vogel's playing is marked by maturity and introspection, qualities that have always been present in his music, but which here come fully into focus.
Karsten Vogel has left an indelible mark on Danish music as a musician, composer, and bandleader. His unmistakably personal alto saxophone sound has been heard across rock, jazz, and jazz-related genres on more than 75 releases, and his career has taken him far beyond Denmark's borders, with concerts across Europe, the USA, Japan, and India. He is widely known as a founding member of legendary jazz-rock bands Burnin Red Ivanhoe and Secret Oyster, and today stands as one of the few active musicians remaining from the early 1960s Danish music scene. In addition, his long-running work in radio has brought him a broad and devoted audience.
Renowned British jazz critic Richard Williams once wrote in Melody Maker: "There aren't many alto saxophonists to whom I'd rather be listening. He has a lovely tone - slender, fibrous and very human - and a shallow vibrato: a highly distinctive combination." Late Night Ballads is a quiet but powerful statement from an artist whose long journey through jazz, rock, and fusion now culminates in a recording of remarkable warmth, depth, and clarity.
Tracklisting
Carsten Dahl, Reuben Rogers & Gregory Hutchinson
Karsten Vogel
Rosalia De Souza Quarteto 55
Duke Ellington
Lennart Ginman, Thomas Blachman & Carsten Dahl
Doug Raney Quartet
Sophisticated Ladies
Michel Petrucciani Trio
Karsten Vogel
