| "Consider Valery Ponomarev, the Russian émigré trumpeter who immediately preceded Wynton Marsalis in the Jazz Messengers. Abandoning the land of giant steppes for the Harvard of hard bop should have made Ponomarev something of a celebrity....[On Trip To Moscow] Ponomarev is writing relaxed lines with inviting twists that are straight out of the Blakey/Silver axis. He is also blowing with a wide, cozy sound and ideas that...never outstrip his technique." |
| The Boston Phoenix |
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| "...a major new soloist...from the Soviet Union. Listening to Valeri Ponomarev on a blindfold-test basis, you could not possibly distinguish him from one of the more inspired and authentic of America's great black trumpeters in the driving, hard-bop jazz genre that is his chosen idiom." |
| Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times |
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| "...he's the most biting trumpet player Art Blakey has had since Lee Morgan." |
| Tim Price, Reading, PA News |
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| "But the most provocative soloist in the group is Valery Ponomarev, a Russian trumpeter who combines a bristling attack with dazzling execution and a very neat, compact, controlled development of his solos." |
| John S. Wilson, The New York Times |
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| "The star of the show is the amazing Ponomarev. With a gritty yet clean sound and neo-bop style, the trumpeter suggests the approach of his idol, the immortal Clifford Brown." |
| Chuck Berg, Lawrence Journal-World |
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| "Ponomarev is a force to be respected....his musicianship, long evident as a trumpeter, extends to composition and arranging as well." |
| Stuart Troup, Newsday |
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| "On the ballad I Remember Clifford, Ponomarev adds both guts and a sense of grandeur to the classic melody, stretching out long languid lines, then spewing tongue-twisting notes and shaping them into graceful phrases." |
| Stephen Israel, The Times Herald Record |
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| "...an outstanding young trumpeter...who has mastered a classically straight-ahead, Clifford Brown-inspired style distinguished as much by the pin-point accuracy and logic of his ideas as by its unwavering beat." |
| Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle |
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| "... Valery moves all over the music with a multitude of cadenzas each more brilliant." |
| Nighthawk, The Gazette, Montreal |
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| "Ponomarev plays powerfully, with a staccato brilliance and burnished tone modeled upon his trumpet heroes-Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Fats Navarro." |
| Hollie I. West, The Washington Post |
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| "Russia's contribution to the jazz world is an unassuming chap named Valery Ponomarev who blows trumpet like a man possessed and who can write with the best of them." |
| Maria Kleman, Aquarian |
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| "Ponomarev is a fine, bright-toned trumpeter of considerable ability whose misfortune was to be succeeded in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers by the younger son of Ellis Marsalis. As a result, Valery's subsequent activities have attracted less attention than they might have deserved. A symptom of this is that it has taken so long for his band, Universal Language, to make this, its recording debut [on Means Of Identification]." |
| Chris Sheridan |
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| "Ponomarev's bristling originals have a jaunty martial kick...[Means Of Identification is] an exhilarating hard-bop outing." |
| George Kanzler, The Newark Star-Ledger |
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| "...Ponomarev is now a solid hard bopper and he more than holds his own in the stalwart company of Henderson, Barron and the rhythm section. His tone is crisp, clean and has a welcome coating of mellow smoothness on slow numbers. His inventive phrases and bright, melodic attack mark him out as an original trumpet stylist....Ponomarev's glowing choruses on "Time" make this the jewel in the album's crown, although the entire CD [Profile] is full of bristling, biting mainstream jazz." |
| Derek Ansell, Jazz Times |
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