Billboard : 05/13/1957
Score of 82

A follow-up to Top Brass (MG 12044) featuring trumpets and rhythm. Wealth of solo content—A. Farmer, E. Berry, C. Shavers, E. Royal and H. Baker are all excellent and represent variety in conception—plus rhythmically strong, moving Basie-type arrangements by Ernie Wilkins give set real substance. Ballad segment on Side Two makes for good change of pace. If shown, should be good seller. Color cover is excellent.

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Metronome
Jack Maher : September, 1957

This is a pretty happy album. The arrangements are by Ernie Wilkins and have that happy-feet, Basie sound and feeling to them. The album teams four swing era trumpets: Emmet Berry, Charlie Shavers, Ernie Royal and Harold Baker with Art Farmer, the lone modernist. Art seems slightly insecure on the date. His sound and ideas have a lack of security; something rare for Art. Maybe it was just one of those days, or, perhaps he just sounds somewhat insecure in comparison to the simplicity of what the others are playing. His construction is much more involved, with an attempt to do more than just ride.

Another thing that becomes apparent on this record is the difference in sounds between the older men and Farmer. His is much more subdued, with an extended use of the middle range; theirs has a brilliance and leap-out quality.

In all, an interesting album that presents two sides of the coin in blitheful swing.

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Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Fred Sherman : 10/20/1957

Trumpets All Out gives you five mature horns by Ernie Royal, Charlie Shavers, Art Farmer, Emmet Berry and Harold Baker. They work over a quartet of compositions by Ernie Wilkins before freshening a ballad medley. The finale is Johnny Mandel’s Low Life. A trumpet showcase throughout, both muted and open. Section work is exciting.

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New Yorker
Whitney Balliett : 06/15/1957

Trumpets All Out (Savoy MG-12096) is a similar but not nearly so successful recording, in which five trumpeters—Art Farmer, Emmet Berry, Charlie Shavers, Ernie Royal, and Harold Baker—and a rhythm section deliver a series of generally shining solos, despite the rather skinny, unimaginative settings provided by Ernie Wilkins, an arranger and composer. Baker, an almost neglected performer who, like the late Joe Smith, has a serene, cowlike tone, is the most rewarding soloist, and, in a slow ballad selection—there are nine numbers on the record—All of Me, creates, in a husky, poignant tone, what amounts to a classic statement. Farmer, a steady and more lyrical version of Miles Davis, is almost as persuasive. Shavers, however, who often plays as if he were a highly vitamined Harry James, jars against the prevailing atmosphere of subtlety and sensitiveness.

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Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Russ Wilson : 06/16/1957

Kansas City swinging sounds with some modern effects by Art Farmer, Charlie Shavers, Emmet Berry, Ernie Royal, and Harold Baker, plus rhythm. Four of the six tracks are from Ernie Wilkins’ facile pen, another is a ballad medley which furnishes a nice contrast.

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Saturday Review
Martin Williams : 07/13/1957

Trumpeters A. Farmer, E. Berry, C. Shavers, E. Royal, and H. Baker, with rhythm, in solos on a “ballad” apiece and on five sketches by E. Wilkins. Frequently exhilarating and generally successful. Berry, merely decorative on Love Is Here to Stay, is beautifully creative elsewhere. Baker’s All of Me is lovely, but on Five Cats Swingin’ he merely riffs. Shavers is noisy, unswinging. Farmer’s modern style is a lively contrast, with Royal a kind of bridge between schools.

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Toronto Star (Toronto, ON)
Roger Feather : 01/25/1958
Four stars

Five trumpets and a rhythm section would appear, on the surface, to make for a loud, brassy and rather tedious album but such is not the case here. By keeping the session relaxed and low-keyed and by writing generally sparse charts, Wilkins has come up with a surprisingly good record.

The five horn-men he chose for the date have individual and easily distinguishable styles but all are of the same general temper. Although Farmer and, to a lesser extent, Royal are decidedly modern and Berry and Shavers are basically swing men, they do not clash. In section or solo all the men are thoughtful, articulate and exhibit excellent conception and interesting ideas.

Johnny Mandel’s very lyrical Low Life receives a wonderful, well-arranged reading and She’s Just My Size, a Wilkins tune originally written for the Basie band, is an excellent chart which features all the soloists muted. Wilkins has written wide chords and flowing lines rather than the expected biting unison brass and happily no space is wasted on an over-fast flag waver.

The Peterson-like Abney puts his solo space to good use and the rhythm section as a whole is cohesive and swinging. There are no weak moments, or men, on this effortless, free-blowing album. This is a bit of a sleeper; don’t overlook it.

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Down Beat : 09/05/1957
Dom Cerulli : 4 stars

Savoy follows up its swinging Top Brass album with another in the same mold, changing the hornmen to (mostly) swing era trumpeters. Ernie Wilkins did the writing and arranging, and it’s in the Basie tradition of easy swing.

Shavers comes on with huge tone and a rich, singing sound. On Five Cats, it seems suddenly that the engineers have turned up the volume when it’s Charlie’s turn to blow. His is an exuberant, masculine sound.

Blues opens with Royal blowing muted and tight before the section takes over. Farmer glistens here in a setting more in his idiom. Shavers is again big and brassy.

Berry shines in his solo vehicle, Love Is Here, and Baker’s lovely tone manages to come through the mute on All of Me. Shavers’ Time on My Hands is a joy to hear.

The section blows muted in both Size and Low Life. Abney adds some meaty fills between solos and some sparkling introductions. Don’t neglect listening to the fine drum work by Donaldson, the man with one of the happiest smiles in music today. His playing is tasty and needling throughout. Marshall, too, is fine.

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Liner Notes by H. Alan Stein

A short time back Savoy commissioned Ernie Wilkins to do an experimental date utilizing only one section of the band with a rhythm section. The end result was Top Brass (MG 12044), a stellar date featuring 5 modern trumpeters blowing score and solo with a top rhythm section. Ernie was intrigued with the idea of that date and its results, Jazz fans everywhere responded eagerly to the sale in stores, and Savoy’s A & R department decided to do a repeat session with this unusual instrumental arrangement. Naturally, the man selected to write and conduct the date was Ernie Wilkins. Ernie and Ozzie Cadena agreed that a change of personnel would expand the horizons of the idea, and carefully selected their “band.” Top Brass had Don Byrd, Joe Wilder, Idrees Sulieman and other trumpet moderns with Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke holding rhythm chairs. For this date it was decided to use primarily men from the late swing period who had shown their abilities in the current bop-influenced musical society, and a change of rhythm. With the exception of Farmer, all the brass section is in their middle or late 30s, and has paid their “dues” in the early, middle and late swing periods, as well as remaining active in today’s modern circles. As is the case with the great Basie band, (with which Wilkins is so familiar), the theme was to be basic Kansas City swinging sounds with modern harmonies and effects. Leader Wilkins’ scores are spare, yet shot with fire. Essentially mood setters, they provide the melodic framework onto which (at his request) the exciting interplay of the solos is woven. To quote Ernie in an interview in Nat Hentoff’s HEAR ME TALKIN TO YA, “I try to write Basie style, happy, free-swinging style, and I look for something fresh, new figures, and avoid things that are trite.” Ernie’s background is centered about the Basie symbol. Born in St. Louis in 1922, he studied piano, alto and tenor saxes and graduated from Wilberforce College. After a 3 year Navy stint at Great Lakes with Willie Smith, Gerald Wilson and others, Ernie went on the road. He played with Earl Hines’ last big band, and joined Basie in 1951. His many scores for the band became a trademark for the new Basie sound which has won such high acclaim. Leaving in 1955, he has freelanced as arranger for Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie. He toured the Middle East with Diz and has been the chief arranging contributor to the Savoy Records Catalog in the past 2 years. The performing brass choir consists of 5 top stars! Art Farmer came to Jazz fans’ attention with Lionel Hampton’s band. He left there and has gigged with Gigi Gryce’s lab outfit, Lester Young, and recently with Horace Silver’s quintet. Considered one of the top young stars, he blows here with great fire! Charlie Shavers has been a standout since 1937. For years the stalwart and style-setter of the John Kirby band, he has played since 1946 with Tommy Dorsey, Jazz At The Philharmonic, and various studio groups. One of the top technicians and stylists on his horn, Charlie won the Esquire Poll in 1946, and Down Beat’s poll in 1948. Ernie Royal was weaned in the Les Hite, Hampton and Basie bands. He was a stand-out in the Woody Herman 2nd Herd and has been with Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington, too. A devotee of the Harry Edison–Roy Eldridge school, he achieves a perfect balance between the swing and modern approach to trumpet. Harold “Shorty” Baker debuted primarily with Fate Marable’s Riverboat Band on the Mississippi, but has run the gamut of Don Redman, Teddy Wilson, Andy Kirk, and longtime stay with Duke Ellington. A spirited brassman, he is noted for his attack and technique. Emmet Berry came out of the Horace and Fletcher Henderson bands of the ’30s and worked with Raymond Scott, Hampton, Benny Carter bands, John Kirby, Johnny Hodges and Eddy Heywood combos, and recently toured North Africa with Sammy Price. Pianist Don Abney is best-known for his stellar work as accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald, tho’ many remember his exciting solo-work in JATP concerts. Wendell Marshall is familiar to Savoy record buyers through his bass-playing membership in the famous “Trio” albums. A former Ellington-ite, he is one of today’s finest technicians. Bobby Donaldson, a heretofore underrated drummer, is a studious former Bostonian who has been a Schillinger student, and has performed admirably with combos led by Paul Bascomb, Edmond Hall, Buck Clayton, Red Norvo, Eddie Condon and others.