Excerpt from Esquire, by Jonathan Eig:

...As he raises his trumpet, the golden spotlight strikes stars on the horn's bell. He takes a deep breath, and for one frozen moment, all is quiet. Tranquility hangs on an unplayed note.
   The trumpeter begins to blow, playing silky ribbons of sixteenth notes that rise and fall. Behind him, the band beats a Latin-jazz rhythm. Then he tosses in a handful of slower, cloudier notes that curl and fade away...read the full story

Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times, by Don Heckman:

...There is a brief moment of silence as Harrell takes his position at the front, nods to the musicians. Without a word of instruction, he grunts a count-off.
   The rhythm section digs into a slow groove, and the saxophone player nods in rhythm with the time. But Harrell, except for a slight trembling in one hand, appears oblivious, standing in a position of near immobility, apparently disconnected to the point of intertia.
   As his time comes to play, however, he slowly brings his horn to his lips and suddenly, without warning, fills it with a stream of music bursting with vitality and life. The contrast is astonishing, as he reels off a string of dazzling, hard swinging, improvised choruses...read the full story

• "A brilliant trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer."
   –Whitney Balliett, The New Yorker

• "There is no one in jazz today writing with more intelligence, depth and heart than Tom Harrell."
   –Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes

• "The premier trumpeter of his generation."
   –David Hajdu, Entertainment Weekly

• "A master of melody."
   –Tom Masland, Newsweek

• "One of the top trumpeters in jazz for the past two decades and one of the music's most prolific and gifted composers."
   –Joe Cooper, New York Observer

• "He is that rare improviser who never resorts to cliché, a talent who seems to have an underground reserve of melody."
   –Tom Moon, Musician

• "His playing is sublime, with a dark warm tone and a poetic sense of melody...his music makes you ponder the heart."
   –Chris Norris, New York