CD Review: Ginman Blachman Dahl, Play Ballads

Listening to Ginman Blachman Dahl’s “Play Ballads” feels like entering a space where time stretches and melody breathes. The Danish trio, pianist Carsten Dahl, bassist Lennart Ginman, and drummer Thomas Blachman, approach fifteen well-worn standards with the authority of long familiarity and the curiosity of players who still search for the new in the known.

Released on Storyville Records on CD on October 31, 2025, and digitally on December 5, the album reaffirms what makes this ensemble distinctive: a shared patience and an instinctive sense of balance between tradition and freedom.

From the very first notes of Matt Dennis’ “Angel Eyes”, it’s clear that the trio has little interest in ornament. The tempo is unhurried, almost suspended, allowing Dahl’s phrasing to unfold like quiet speech. Each chord seems to ask a question rather than make a statement. Ginman’s bass lines move like undercurrents, precise but fluid, while Blachman shapes the rhythmic space with brushes that never intrude, every gesture feels intentional, as if chosen for what it leaves unsaid.

There’s a similar intimacy in their reading of “Gone with the Wind”, where the familiar melody drifts through changing light. The trio resists sentimentality, instead tracing the piece’s reflective core. On “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”, they pare the tune back to its bones, revealing a slow-motion swing that’s more felt than heard. The restraint throughout the album may come as a surprise to those expecting overt drama; yet the understated tension , especially in Dahl’s voicings and the sustained dialogue between bass and drums, gives these performances their quiet weight.

Having followed Ginman, Blachman, and Dahl in various settings since their early collaborations in Copenhagen’s late-’80s scene, I hear on “Play Ballads” a maturity that grows out of trust. Their shared vocabulary, shaped across earlier trio projects and a host of individual recordings, allows an almost telepathic interplay. Dahl’s harmonic sensibility still carries that mix of abstraction and lyricism, but here it’s grounded by Ginman’s centered tone and Blachman’s conversational drumming. What emerges is less a showcase of virtuosity than a study in collective listening.

The album’s pacing is deliberate, fifteen standards treated as meditations. “Autumn in New York” unfolds with quiet melancholy; “Take the ‘A’ Train”, almost always played up-tempo elsewhere, becomes contemplative, its rhythmic edges softened until it feels more like memory than movement. The trio rarely raises its dynamic beyond mezzo piano, but within that range the nuances are remarkable: small shifts of voicing, the lingering decay of a cymbal, or the way a bass note opens into silence.

Storyville Records provides an apt home for this kind of work, a label with deep ties to Danish jazz heritage, yet consistently supportive of artists exploring introspection and modern interpretation. “Play Ballads” sits comfortably in that lineage, presenting familiar repertoire as a living conversation rather than archival exercise.

After several listens, what stays with me is not a single performance but the album’s overall atmosphere, the stillness between phrases, the transparency of sound, and the unspoken dialogue among three musicians who clearly trust one another. In slowing these standards down to an almost meditative pace, Ginman Blachman Dahl reveal how much emotional space still exists inside the jazz trio tradition. “Play Ballads” doesn’t attempt to redefine the ballad form; it simply listens more deeply to what was already there.

Line-Up:
Carsten Dahl – Piano | Lennart Ginman – Double Bass | Thomas Blachman – Drums

Release Date: CD – 31 October 2025 | Digital – 5 December 2025
Format: CD | Streaming
Label: Storyville Records