[1][2][3][4] In a review for AllMusic, Glenn Astarita wrote: "Ragin and co. interrogate blues-based themes amid emphatic choruses, torrid soloing, slight injections of free jazz, and climactic opuses.

Fanfare & Fiesta is an audacious and refreshing exposition, supplemented by memorable compositions and the ensemble's often dazzling interplay.

"[1] Greg Robinson of JazzTimes called the album "an enjoyable treatise on the state of the modern jazz trumpet," and commented: "In spite of the potential for screechiness, the performances never degenerate into mindless pyrotechnical display.

While the individual trumpeters' influences may be all over the map, there is such good humor evident in the ensemble... that an anything-goes atmosphere prevails... Making Fanfare and Fiesta must have been a dream come true for Ragin.

"[6] Writing for All About Jazz Jim Santella remarked: "It's each soloist's creative input that makes Ragin's second Justin Time album a success.