With her potent quintet the Same River, Twice, she is the fuse for explosions of deep group interaction, offering visceral harmonic statements while injecting her busy, dancing, at times pensive, and occasionally cluster-laden outspoken style to the forefront, its territory mapped by very few.

[3] In JazzTimes, Bill Shoemaker wrote "On Above Blue (Arabesque), two trend lines merge, and spike upwards as a result.

Throughout this wide-ranging program, Melford goes a step beyond a seamless mastery of the recombinant Downtown aesthetic of the ’80s and ’90s to achieve a rare paradox: by writing so precisely to the strengths of her collaborators, she has created highly personal work".

[5] On All About Jazz, Glenn Astarita said "On Above Blue, Ms. Melford’s impressive track record of performing with top-notch musicians and churning out enticingly complex compositions remain intact.

Its emotional range is breathtaking and the virtuosity of the performers is tremendous ... What's most impressive is how finely crafted this music is, while at the same time leaving so much space for each instrumentalist to display his creativity to the utmost.