Carsten Dahl is a highly regarded pianist in the country that has brought us such groundbreaking television dramas such as Borgen and The Killing. Danish jazz, however, is perhaps less groundbreaking than their television, as Jan Granlie, former editor of Norway's Jazznytt magazine observed in the Scandinavian television documentary Jazz from North – Denmark may have great jazz musicians, but many struggle to escape the shackles of bebop. One way of doing it is to opt for spontaneous invention, something that has increasingly occupied Carsten Dahl. This is a very challenging area of jazz, requiring a high degree of inspiration, invention, execution and, in an ensemble context, mutual empathy. But having all these elements in place is still no guarantee of aesthetic satisfaction for those on the receiving end; it is perfectly possible for a musician to play everything ‘correctly’ idiomatically, yet the results appear uninteresting and so boredom becomes a possible response. On Under the Rainbow, Dahl is accompanied by an ‘A-list’ rhythm section but somehow his playing fails to stir the emotions, sounding for all the world like some kind of experiment into artistic research being conducted in his capacity as professor at the Rhythmic Conservatory. Reverentia is by a completely different ensemble that includes upcoming talent Stefan Pasborg on drums. Pasborg is at the forefront of a generation of younger Danish players determined to move beyond the shadow of bop and is ideally suited to Dahl's open-ended compositions. Reverentia concludes a trilogy of albums preceded by Humilitas and Metamorphosis, but again is music that's difficult to love. While it has an undeniable quirkiness and unpredictability, it is these qualities that seem to rob the music of meaning and ultimately value. Whatever the underlying schemata and conceptual point of view that lies at the heart of this music, its execution appears mechanical and contrived, leaving little to warm to. There is a danger here that however fascinating and brain teasing this music may be to other musicians and academics, and whatever artistic plaudits they may attach to it, it is not music that people in the real world can get a purchase on. If this is to be the fate of jazz, that it looses its humanity in pursuit of some abstruse aesthetic goal, then the future does indeed look bleak.