While We're Young (album)

The editors of AllMusic awarded the album 4 stars, and reviewer Michael G. Nastos stated: "This trio hits on many different angles, from somber and reverent to acutely kinetic and truly electrifying. This is exploratory music, unique unto itself, and a landmark fusion of the '90s. If this kind of jazz is what you crave, those who were young in the '70s, it's a must-buy, no doubt."^[2]

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album 3½ stars, saying, "It was widely assumed in 1992 that Abercrombie's organ trio—poised somewhere between Wes Montgomery and Lifetime—was a one-off idea, a forgivable self-indulgence that actually worked better than one had a right to expect. In fact its great success has largely defined Abercrombie's recent career and has very significantly kick-started his playing."^[4]

The Washington Post's Geoffrey Himes noted that the music is "expertly played and provides the harmonic substance that such atmospheric music usually lacks," but commented: "this is one of those exceptions that lends credence to the unfair stereotype that all ECM music is as static and impersonal as the calendar art on its album covers."^[7]

Tyran Grillo of ECM blog Between Sound and Space described the album as "candy for the ears," featuring a "sumptuous combination of instruments, cradled in ECM's enabling acoustics."^[8]

• John Abercrombie – guitar
• Dan Wall – Hammond organ
• Adam Nussbaum – drums