14/07/2005 John Fordham - The Guardian

The American's group plays opposite UK bass virtuoso Arnie Somogyi's contemporary quartet, which assumed the tough task of offering Schuur's mainstream audience a repertoire of unpredictable and occasionally faintly solemn post-Coltrane originals. The engagingly dry tone and fresh phrasing of saxophonist Paul Booth, and Somogyi's full-bodied sound and subtle timing, helped give the music an understated authority, and an account of Wayne Shorter's Tom Thumb was both a creative collective exercise and a reminder of how waywardly personal yet lyrical a composer Shorter has always been.

01/07/0006 Jazzwise (Kenny Mathieson)

*** Although this is only billed as a four-track EP, it's playing time clocks in at over 40 minutes, so it provides a very substantial taste of bassist Arnie Somogyi's fine young band of self-proclaimed "specialists in musical accident and insurgency" (saxophonist Rob Townsend has been added to the line-up since this recording). There is nothing accidental about the playing, while the original compositions that make up the album are anything but worthless, and provide rich material for the layers to develop, both in their creative soloing and group interplay. Lapthorn's off-kilter groover "Loose Connection" is a strong opening selection. Somogyi's "Roses" and a composition of his own "Thumb Screw" with Wayne Shorter's "Tom Thumb" demonstrate his ability as a composer as well as virtuoso bassist, and Booth's lithe "Forgotten" closes the set. A very promising beginning, and one that suggests there will be much more to come from this source."