He "has a fluency and range on the instrument that would have seemed impossible a few years ago...like a trombone version of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone sound." (Robert Palmer, NY Times).

 

"The most prominent trombonist of his generation." (Gene Seymour, NY Newsday)

 

"Anderson is a true and total original." (Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times)

 

"Ray's chops are phenomenal - from swooping legato to breakneck staccato, from the nastiest growls to the sweetest whimpers - but it's evident that he's not about technique, that he'll sometimes altogether forget technique. It's the feeling he's playing,..." (Michael Bourne, Downbeat)

 

"Ray Anderson's trombone chops have the strength of tensile steel and the flexibility of latex, and his technique allows him to play whatever ideas enter his mind. What enters it has large components not only of beauty but of whimsy and nonsense. In addition to the range of Yma Sumac and tonal variety approximating that of a 16-piece band, Anderson has taste." (Doug Ramsey, Jazz Times)

 

"In recent years, Ray Anderson has all but revolutionized trombone technique. He not only plays faster with more variations of tone and timbre than his contemporaries, but also injects extraordinary energy and feeling into his music, be it a basic blues, a tricksy original or a straightahead blowing vehicle." (Chris Parker, BBC Music Magazine)

 

"Anderson burns and buzzes and nuzzles the airstream like Ben Webster, none of his trenchancy nor distortions detracting from the beauty."

(Brian Case, Melody Maker)

 

"Ray Anderson carries on like a handsome devil, scatting up a storm in his husky, ecstatic voice, dancing like a Chaplin on amphetamines, and above all playing his trombone." (L'Hebdo, Lausanne, Switzerland)

 

Since the mid 70s Ray Anderson has proven to be one of the most inventive creative improvising musicians. Still on the scene and now in his sixties his instincts seem as inventive as ever.

(Cadence Magazine, June 2016, Robert D. Rusch)

 

Anderson's vivid tone and mercurial phrasing elevates the proceedings. Whether unleashing tortuous chromatic runs, avant-gutbucket smears, or plangent cries, his optimistic deportment always shines.

Troy Collins, All About Jazz; November 20, 2016

 

“Ray Anderson gets a lot of the human voice into his trombone sound - a talking, throat-clearing, guttural sound that harks back to jazz's rude beginnings.” Kevin Whitehead, Ntional Public Radio’s Fresh Air.