Billboard : 05/13/1957
Score of 79

A classy, loosely swinging jazz set that may be sold, first, to guitar addicts, and second, to patrons of semi-cool modern jazz. There’s good variety via guest stars B. Brookmeyer and Al Cohn, each of whom shares several tracks with sensitive, inventive guitar-leader. Fine program, fine packaging. For something unusual, try Last Night When We Were Young.

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Cashbox : 06/22/1957

Guitarist Jimmy Raney‘s 3 attitudes are combo encounters with Bob Brookmeyer (trombone); Al Cohn (tenor) and Red Mitchell (bass). The waxing is in a sunny mood with the only exception being the last blues feeling of Last Night When We Were Young. Raney and his 3 notable jazz friends have kept the spirit and invention high here. Class jazz set.

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Oakland Tribune
Russ Wilson : 08/04/1957

The title refers to the quintets and quartet with which Raney, a fine musician and an individualistic guitarist, made this LP. Among his associates are Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, and Red Mitchell. The eight tracks are mostly left-of-center modern and include Passport to Pimlico, Up in Quincy’s Room, and So In Love.

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Providence Journal
Philip C. Gunion : 06/02/1957

An outstanding guitarist, in a field crowded with them, is Jimmy Raney, whose new ABC-Paramount album is Jimmy Raney in Three Attitudes, in which his talents are backed up in three separate sections by Al Cohn, tenor; Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone, and Red Mitchell, bass. Other mixed up in the three sessions include, Hall Overton, piano; Whitey Mitchell, bass; Osie Johnson, drums; John Williams, piano, and others.

The tunes are So In Love, Last Night When We Were Young, Strike Up the Band, and some originals. A nice, relaxed album with the typical Raney spark and Brookmeyer and Cohn in nice form.

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Saturday Review
Nat Hentoff : 06/29/1957

Another guitarist of subtle wit and fluid musical perception is Jimmy Raney. In Three Attitudes places Mr. Raney in a quartet and two different quintets. The featured sidemen (all do not appear on all tracks) are the astonishing, horn-flexible bassist, Red Mitchell; the absorbingly intelligent valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer; and the firm, swinging tenor, Al Cohn.

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Down Beat : 07/11/1957
Ralph J. Gleason : 3.5 stars

What In Three Attitudes means is beyond me except as a device for presenting sides which feature Brookmeyer, Cohn, and Mitchell in addition to Raney. Such an idea is excellent, since it breaks up the similarity in tonal color endemic in guitar records.

However, it didn’t exactly do that here because of the nature of the instruments. The burry tone (bow to W. Balliett) of Cohn seems also to be characteristic of Brookmeyer, especially when playing at slower tempos, the bass is already in the same general division, and the result is still a lack of sufficient contrast.

But there are a lot of good points to the LP. For instance, on Indian Summer where Raney comes in after the bass and makes the whole thing swing so rightly; Raney’s solo on Fanfare; Red Mitchell’s solo on Pimlico, and Red Mitchell and Brookmeyer’s solos on Strike Up the Band. On the other hand, the lugubrious tone of Brookmeyer on a slow tune such as Last Night plus the unbelievably slow bass solo (Red) on the same tune almost put this listener to sleep.

Overall, the album seems to me to demonstrate that Raney’s superiority in the quick, alert swinging of the uptempo tunes is unfortunately not equaled by his lyric work on the slower ballads. The music is suave, polished, and sometimes bland, withal excellently organized and produced.

The annotator couldn’t have meant “rending” in referring to the reprise of Passport to Pimlico unless he heard something more abandoned in the performance than I did.

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Liner Notes by Tom Stewart

To converse with Jimmy Raney, one is made aware of the soft-spoken, modest personality which would seem to belie the very dynamic creative forces which are manifest in the man’s guitar playing. One also detects the unbending faith in a chosen direction which makes Jimmy’s art at once so personal and so convincing. The deliberate, thoughtful approach evident in his solo and ensemble work, combined with the technical prerequisites and the creative faculties, place Jimmy’s efforts on the highest level of musical taste.

Born roughly thirty years ago in Louisville, KY, Jimmy became a student of the guitar at the age of ten. By the the time he became seriously interested in jazz in the early forties, he had already acquired a not-too-common mastery of his instrument. Throughout the forties and early fifties he worked with the big bands of Jerry Wald, Woody Herman and Artie Shaw, and the small groups of Buddy DeFranco, Terry Gibbs, Stan Getz and Red Norvo. Jimmy has appeared on numerous recordings, both under his own name and with other jazz groups. At the present he resides in Jackson Heights with his charming wife, Lee, and works with Jimmy Lyon‘s house trio at the swank Blue Angel in addition to his recording activities.

For this album, which was done in three separate recording sessions, no few than eight musicians were used in addition to Jimmy, among which are some of the most outstanding jazz talents available. With Jimmy on the three quartet sides (Original, Strike Up The Band and Indian Summer) are Hall Overton, the classically-learned pianist and composer; Red Mitchell, who is finding more and more outlets for his talent on both sides of the continent; and Osie Johnson, deservedly becoming something of a fixture around the New York jazz scene – an extremely adaptable and infectious drummer.

On The Rocks was written by Jimmy and has a very pleasantly-moving theme which is played in octaves by Jimmy and Red Mitchell.

Strike Up The Band is, as might be expected, taken at a very energetic tempo here. Jimmy opens with the melody, then takes four very fleet choruses. Hall Overton and Red follow with two each before Jimmy takes it out. Notice Osie Johnson’s supple brushwork on this.

Indian Summer, perhaps the most beautiful of all the Victor Herbert melodies, demonstrates Jimmy’s capacity for choosing the good notes. Red Mitchell’s two-chorus solo opens with a short phrase which may be familiar to some Indians.

On the second session, Jimmy’s colleagues are the omnipresent Al Cohn on tenor; Johnny Williams on piano; Red’s brother, Whitey Mitchell, on bass; and Jack Edie (a comparative newcomer to recording) on drums.

Johnny Mandel‘s still fresh Passport To Pimlico was first recorded several years ago by tenor saxist Herbie Steward, who, with Al Cohn, was a member of the original Four Brothers sax section of Woody Herman‘s band. Al, Jimmy and Johnny Williams have solos on this new rending.

Fanfare is Bob Brookmeyer‘s tune, and displays again Bob’s talent for composition which avoids the pitfall of overworked patterns. In contrast to the usual 32-bar form, Fanfare has an ABCA form (the first three eight-bar phrases are totally different from one another). The second eight bars of the theme have a feeling of the old Fats Waller stride style.

Johnny Williams, Red Mitchell and Osie Johnson form the rhythm section for the third session and Bob Brookmeyer’s valve trombone provides the complementary voice to Jimmy’s guitar.

So In Love is certainly one of the high points of the album. Usually treated as a ballad, it is taken at a fairly healthy pace here. Bob and Jimmy state the melody, alternating between unison and contrapuntal lines. Both have a chorus each, and Johnny Williams and Red Mitchell split one. The whole is propelled very consistently by the excellent rhythm trio of Williams, Mitchell and Osie Johnson.

The beautiful Last Night When We Were Young features Bob Brookmeyer for the most part, with Jimmy supplying obbligato figures behind him on the opening sixteen and the last eight bars.

Gigi Gryce‘s minor-keyed opus, Up In Quincy’s Room, was titled after a fellow musician-arranger-composer of note, Quincy Jones. As does Brookmeyer’s Fanfare, it avoids the commonplace in melodic and harmonic structure. Bob and Jimmy have two choruses each; Johnny and Red, one each.