Flying Toward the Sound

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Guardian	[3]
PopMatters	[4]

AllMusic awarded the album 4+1⁄2 stars, stating, "Flying Toward the Sound is a major work for solo piano: courageous, vulnerable, poetically articulated, and technically awe-inspiring in form and execution".^[2] The Guardian review by John Fordham awarded the album 3 stars, noting, "It's a specialised homage to pianists and pianos, but this is the work of a formidable virtuoso".^[3] PopMatters reviewer Will Layman said, "I’d been thinking that Geri Allen had somehow gone flat in recent years, but I was wrong. She is just more catholic in the way she packages her intelligent, brave playing"^[4] JazzTimes stated, "the ghost of each pianist’s influence inhabits the "Refractions" suite... Nonetheless, every note of music is unmistakably Allen: clear, carefully plotted (even in the tangles of notes that shape the title track), and part of a larger soundscape that's as surreal as it is melodic".^[5] All About Jazz enthused, "Jazz has been quoted as being "music that walks a tightrope without a net." Allen's Flying Toward the Sound effectively fits that description—daring, vulnerable, and breathtaking".^[6]