Black Pearl (Harrison/Blanchard album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[10]
MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide	[11]
The Philadelphia Inquirer	[8]
The Windsor Star	C[12]

The Washington Post noted that "the mood is generally dark, somber and understated—even 'Ninth Ward Strut', the third tune on the album and the first to really emphasize a beat, keeps the rhythms tightly contained."^[9] The Globe and Mail said that the duo's "tunes are flirtatious, full of ambiguities and open ends; their solos are as often wistfully evasive as they are punchy and to the point."^[13] The Ottawa Citizen stated that the "solid, post-bop improvising shows the duo's ability to move outside conventions and to compose well structured pieces."^[14]

The Windsor Star concluded that "the title cut has a haunting quality, quietly suspenseful, but some tunes are blandly vamp-like."^[12] The Buffalo News opined that "there is something curiously abstract, theoretical and even tentative about the record".^[15] The Commercial Appeal praised "Blanchard's finest recorded trumpet solos".^[16] The New York Daily News opined that the duo "prove that recreating bop-era jazz needn't result in wax-museum-like records like those of Wynton Marsalis."^[17] The Pittsburgh Press and The Edmonton Journal included Black Pearl on their lists of the 10 best jazz albums of 1988.^[18][19]