GRAMMY AWARD WINNER – Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording

“... this magnificent, nature-drunk masterpiece, one of the great jazz records period, not just one of the great recent jazz records.”
– THE BUFFALO NEWS – Jeff Simon

"This marriage of sounds, words and images is ultimately breathtaking, a testament not simply to the hipness of jazz but to the uplifting and sustaining powers of art."
– OTTAWA CITIZEN – Peter Hum

"The Thompson Fields breaks that spell with an extravagant show of her strengths: precise, expressive harmony; ribbons of diaphanous texture; a rhythmic momentum that doesn’t feel propulsive so much as wind-borne. Her new pieces, inspired by various ecological and personal epiphanies, stands alongside the best of her previous work, which is saying something."
– NEW YORK TIMES – NATE CHINEN

"The Thompson Fields breaks through to a new level. It's her most ambitious recording, and her most accomplished; it places her in the pantheon of big-band composer-leaders, just below Ellington, Strayhorn, and Gil Evans at his very best; it's a masterpiece"
– STEREOPHILE – Fred Kaplan

The Thompson Fields (*****five stars) "...when the artistic offerings competing for our entertainment dollars and attention are vast compared to the days of five television channels and a handful of records labels, one artist has risen—in terms of talent and the beauty and perfection of her recent output—to an Ellington-ian level: Composer/arranger Maria Schneider." – ALL ABOUT JAZZ – Dan McClenaghan The Thompson Fields:  "Beyond the searching solos and high virtuosity both on and off the paper, it’s the love poured into The Thompson Fields that flows back out of the speakers and makes it such an unusually moving work of art. It captures Schneider ’s artistic vision unlike anything else in her catalogue." – THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD – David R. Adler The Thompson Fields ***** "Beyond categorization….simply sublime...You don’t listen to CDs from the Maria Schneider [Orchestra]. You “experience” them." – AUDIOPHILE AUDITION – JE "Maria Schneider is a national treasure." – NPR