Improvisations on Utterback's own compositions

"The liner notes point out influences such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, and Errol Garner, and indeed, these have been synthesized into a personal approach... The feel of stride (as de constructed by Tatum) is prominent, along with high-velocity runs, Garneresque chord tremolos, and Evans harmonic language (particularly with ballads)... overwhelming techni- cal mastery and sheer speed... Repeated listening reveals the power of the playing - a three-minute song can be a roller coaster ride of sudden and surprising changes... "Summertime" starts at an appropriate slow tempo, with lightning fast commentary between melody state- ments, while dynamics vary from soft to crescendo and harmonies shift subtly. Utterback breaks into double-time, with finger-breaking flight, then touches down softly. "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing" starts with stuttering stride with mildly dissonant punctuation, then hits at boogie-woogie and barrelhouse styles, Tatumesque wild chases, Garneresque right-hand chording, and more pianist tricks and licks than should be squeezable into five minutes... but the music flows organically... "0 Bess, Where Is My Bess" finds him in his mellow Evans mode, closing the suite beautifully."

"...[Utterback's] playing combines the Garner grand style with the note spinning of Tatum, and just occasionally there's a touch of George Shearing. Blessed with a superb technique, his ornamental arrangements show the influence of Godowsky, and even Liszt, and are as decorative and stunning as the finest we have heard from the likes of Earl Wild, and full of harmonic invention Utterback's own pieces here are pure Hollywood mixed with ragtime. Porgy is full of unique conception and I cannot think that St. Louis Blues has ever sounded quite like this... for connoisseurs of the grand virtuoso jazz style... an excellent disc."

"His improvisations on George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Jazz Suite are a tour de force. His interpretations are rich and sensuous but also playful and naughty. His technique is absolutely faultless. There's no fat on those fingers as they light into Art Tatum-like runs that are alternately molten and crystalline. Utterback has some chops, and the soul to make them count."

"Joe Uttterback's piano roars, sweeps, caresses, and romances the ear... he combines the harmonic richness of Errol Garner with the speed and passion of Josef Hofmann... big-time virtuoso pianism."

"[Utterback has] a winning way with melody... The piano sound on this disc is the best I have ever heard on record."

"... [Utterback] brings in arrangement what might best be described as a composite of the greatest American jazz and piano styles of the century. Utterback has a technique which makes light of every hurdle, but his arrangements are not in the same pyrotechnical style as, say, Earl Wild. Rather the technique is married to contemplation and to colour, to phrasing and shaping of ideas which have more to do with the emotional core of the original films than to their tunes.

... we are in Blues Land, and it is hard to imagine a more tongue-in-cheek vamping style than this - just listen to the start of Laura. . . for a flavour of something pianists born elsewhere seem unable to recreate... there is a sense of authority and authenticity here, laced with a lifetime of musical development, which raise the skill to an altogether higher plane...Arlen's Blues in the Night has a real period feel.

... Legrand's The Summer Knows and Mandel's The Shadow of Your Smile take us into a kind of impressionist dreamland at their beginnings before the treatment centres on the melodies. Bronislav Kaper's On Green Dolphin Street drives its energy forward with style, and Gershwin's Love Walked In reminded me of a smoky late-night, dark and quiet New York basement piano bar of pre-war days. Harold Arlen returns with Over the Rainbow, another complex and thoughtful creation of mood as much as of substance.

... Utterback seems to bring the best of all worlds, and on his second Connoisseur Society CD he has again been afforded the kind of sound quality that one associates with the largest recording companies at their very best."

"... The album... is a dozen famous tunes that came from the movies... Joe Utterback is the pianist and his take on these classics is distinguished by some unexpected twists and engaging improvisations during the fairly lengthy tracks on each tune. Exemplary acoustics. Top rate piano sound."

"Christmas music for the piano... a different angle that makes it highly listenable and a cut above the same old-same-old-carols-on-the-piano... The 14 tracks here include some of the expected ones.. .but they also present a number of less well-known Christmas pop songs and even an original by Utterback. The difference here [is] the imaginative jazz-oriented improvisations on all these tunes - giving them a new face that keeps listening high throughout the album."

Improvs on Broadway show tunes

"A surprising and delightful set of jazz and blues arrangements that leave one speechless."

"Night Train is actually [Utterback's] fifth release for Connoisseur Society. The program is weighted towards such well worn material as "Satin Doll", "Embraceable You", "Lullaby of Birdland", and the title track... Utterback has no problems spinning the stylistic range... he definitely prefers the melody-with-interjection approach."

"[Joe Utterback's] style is incredibly varied, and his compositions, originals as well as arrangements (such as his 1997 concert fantasy on Gershwin's Porgy & Bess) are sophisticated and endlessly inventive, owing much to such important predecessors as Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, and Bill Evans."

"The Porgy & Bess Fantasy is in four discrete sections... Utterback's brilliant treatments complement the pleasure that is intrinsic in Gershwin's melodies... The same holds true for the Three Spirituals... Utterback doesn't stretch the material out of shape in adding his intricate embroideries. This is a great CD to put your feet up to and to "chill" by... If you're looking for late-night, traditional jazz pianism, you've come to the right place."

"The way Utterback moves from something that sounds like a night in Harlem to a flash from a Scriabin light show - sometimes in the same pieces - is the distinctive pleasure of this album."