"****" best of 2007
(For "People I Like")
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Downbeat Magazine
"Top 10 of 2007-"People I Like" (in 3 publications)
"
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Coda Magazine, AllAboutJazz.com, Ed Hazell-Village Voice Jazz Poll
"****" best of 2005 - for The Blueprint Project
(in four publications)
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Downbeat Magazine, Coda Magazine, All About Jazz & The Jazz Review
"People I Like is serious fun...Bennink’s approval is audible in his exuberant playing. He’s in buoyant form throughout, in his element with a group who are accomplished, imaginative and comitted to enjoyment. Recommended without reservation as an antidote to grey and rainy days."
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Julian Cowley, The Wire
"...an accomplished set from an ensemble of four individuals who’ve mastered the art of simultaneously playing both against and with one another."
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Robert Shore, JazzWise
"Not adverse to good-timey melodies, driven by Bennink’s sand dancer-like brush strokes and unison guitar-saxophone licks, the band is made up of jazzmen as knowledgeable as Bennink."
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Ken Waxman, Wholenote
"Stamey and Rogers coaxed their instruments into tumultuous, nonconcurrent rising and falling melodies, occasionally letting it all collapse into a brilliant heap."
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Washington Post
"Especially wonderful piano solos" (Travels in the South)
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Stereophile Magazine
"The Blueprint Project is rich with ideas, confidently executed, melodic and inventive all at once."
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Kevin Whitehead (NPR's Fresh Air, etc.), liner notes
"[listening to the Blueprint Project] I am reminded that the naysayers do indeed know nothing and that the future of jazz is secure in the hands of the new generation of young musicians...a tremendous effort."
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AllAboutJazz.com
"..the compositional integrity of a Debussy piano work filtered through a jazz artist's experimental spirit...esoteric grooves...exotic and suave"
(for Pendulabellum)"
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Jonathan Babu, Northeast Performer
"an all-star band that can do no wrong" (Chris Stamey Experience)
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Gene Armstrong, Tuscon Weekly
"One of 2005's most pleasurable albums" (Chris Stamey Experience)
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Michael Pelusi, Prefix Magazine
"Modern to the core" (Blueprint Project)
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Ken Micallef, Modern Drummer