Exhale (Arthur Blythe album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Guardian	[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[4]

In his review on AllMusic, arwulf arwulf called it an "enjoyable album".^[2] In JazzTimes, John Litweiler wrote: "the leader himself casts a peculiarly gloomy, out-of-character spell. Blythe’s strengths-big sound, aggressive attack and bright melodic imagination-are best at up tempos and on pieces with chord changes, wherein the active harmonic structure lends shape to his frequently discontinuous lines. Exhale has too many slow tempos and one-chord pieces; moreover, his sound now is limpid and his attack laid-back ... Exhale must have simply been a bad day".^[5] In The Guardian, John Fordham observed "Not perfect playing, but very compelling music from a unique improviser, and the strange group sound grows on you".^[3]