The New York Jazz Record - "Best Debut Record of 2014"
Ted Gioia - "The 100 Best Albums of 2014", #45
"Under-the-radar jazz album that deserves your attention." - Ted Gioia
Something Else Reviews - S. Victor Aaron's Best of 2014
"Uncommonly fresh and quietly inventive, Inward Looking Outward breathes new life into the venerable ol’ piano trio without having to step outside to achieve that. A rare achievement, to be sure." - S. Victor Aaron
"It's something of a cliché to say that an artist is one of a kind, but it fits the bill with Wright. His music is informed by religion, yet his music bears no traces of religiosity, and he's plugged into the rhythmically perspicacious nature of modern music, yet he often speaks in measured tones, using direct phrasing that's at once unique and wholly in tune with the ear." - Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
"...an enjoyable and auspicious debut." - Dave Sumner, Wondering Sound
"J.J. Wright makes a powerful, musical, debut on "Inward Looking Outward" (also an apropos title for a recording) - his interactions with Nate Wood and Ike Sturm seem natural not forced and one can tell he felt comfortable to be himself (letting the rhythm section do what they do best.)" - RIchard Kamins, Step Tempest
"Instead, think of Inward as jazz piano that’s often only incidentally jazz with a thoroughly 21st century rhythm section. This could be the best album The Bad Plus never made…but should have. With both the secular and ecclesiastical existing side-by-side, Wright brings to bear his formal studies at the New School For Jazz in New York, as well as his love for classical music, and his infallible ear for hooks...Uncommonly fresh and quietly inventive, Inward Looking Outward breathes new life into the venerable ol’ piano trio without having to step outside to achieve that. A rare achievement, to be sure."
-S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
"J.J. Wright’s refreshing new jazz album Inward Looking Outward provides a solid example of a musician leading the listener on a journey without holding his or her hand, allowing for the wildness and wonder to come through...Wright and company unleash a grand, sweeping sound that will give you chills."
- Asher Gelzer-Govatos, Fare Foward