“Visionary. Nicole Mitchell's flute calling has been the sine qua non of contemporary new music across America, if not the world in general. Coupled with a rigorously astute compositional aptitude and sheer ambition, the year 2007 entering '08 has found her stardom soaring - pitched at the preface of an assure fame. Suffice it to say 'hard work' has paid off as nothing else can.” --Lofton Emenari, What is This Thing Called Jazz
“The most important jazz flutist of her generation. Mitchell proves herself an innovative composer, magnanimous band leader and compelling soloist.” --Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz
“This piece (Xenogenesis Suite) was the biggest surprise of last year’s Vision festival. It boiled with excitement and raw power that spread throughout the space in waves as the music rose and fell. Even the quietest moments were suffused with energy, and at climaxes, the volume and multihued textures were overpowering.” --Marc Medwin, Bagatellen
“This 2008 release (Xenogenesis Suite) is an out-jazz wonder.” --ITunes
“Mitchell's writing for the eight instrumentalists is strikingly fresh, and this music is both deeply rooted and futuristic, in more ways than one.” --ITunes
There's both a buzz and an independence about flautist Nicole Mitchell. Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute To Octavia Butler is her second disc for a label other than her own and it marks the arrival of a singular talent for whom the future holds much promise.
--Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com
One of the highest compliments I can pay to this recording is that I always listen to it from beginning to end, and that I don’t really distinguish between separate tracks. It really is a suite in the sense of a continuous flow of feeling and atmosphere that pervades the album. It’s cinematically evocative, and as such extremely effective in creating a musical version of the science fiction fantasy inspired by the work of Octavia Butler.
--Dan Melnick, Soundslope
Mitchell’s achievement lies in her coherent assemblage of diverse elements of musical information to draw novelty from familiarity. But then again Mitchell has shown herself to be more than capable of rising above stylistic clichés while staying rooted in the deepest traditions of black music.
--Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise
...this is a remarkable achievement by a still-evolving talent whose recording debut, Vision Quest, was only seven years ago. That’s long enough for a full evolutionary transformation, and with this set Mitchell seems ready to embark on something even more radically exciting and impressively achieved...she’s already beyond category and working at some distance from the tired debate about composition vs. improvisation. If that isn’t important, I don’t know what is.
--Brian Morton, PointofDeparture.org
Mitchell has composed a suite that is as harrowing as it is beautiful...the music serves as a true introduction and counterpart to Butler's groundbreaking work. --Brad Walseth, JazzChicago.net
Flutist Nicole Mitchell has become one of our city’s most respected musical artists...her creativity is always boundless. With Xenogenesis Suite, Nicole Mitchell has created a strikingly original work that will surely be considered a major artistic statement for years to come. --Jay Collins, JazzGram
Xenogenesis Suite will be an equally gratifying listening experience for Nicole Mitchell’s fans and those who are new to her music...it provides a fine opportunity to enjoy the composer and arranger, and to discover yet another side of Mitchell’s many talents. --Alain Drouot, jazzColours
From the opening upward flourish of the first movement, the recording is imbued with a sense of purpose that underlies every phrase of the beautiful scoring. The composition certainly invokes Mitchell’s associations with the AACM, the multimovement work clearly rooted in the multicultural conventions birthed by improvisational practices of the 1960s; however, Mitchell’s harmonies owe a large debt to contemporary classical music, and her effective blending of stylistic traits becomes more apparent upon repeated listening. Her playing is second to none, scaling heights of register and virtuosity and making the suite’s conclusion the powerful statement it is. This is a finely detailed rendering of a wonderful piece of music, and the playing is first rate. --Marc Medwin, Bagatellen
Mitchell’s music expresses the disoriented wonder of Butler’s imaginary world by subjecting familiar tonal patterns to oblique treatments: a Black Saint And The Sinner Lady for our times. --Philip Clark, Jazz Review
With its churning rhythms, high-intensity blowing and sharp ear for colors, Mitchell’s Xenogenesis Suite is quintessentially AACM music with a twist. She takes care of the ancient roots -- much of this music has a haunted, ritual quality that feels very African in its inspiration -- while pointing the way to the musical future midwifed by the AACM for the past 40 years. --John Chacona, Signal to Noise
...one of the few post-9/11 concept albums that succeed in balancing a heavy concept with solid music. --Mike Shanley, JazzTimes
Xenogenesis Suite is a very strong and convincing proposition from flutist Nicole Mitchell. Moving, intricate and immediate, this album marks a paradigm shift in her work as a composer, toward a much more personal voice. Xenogenesis Suite is the kind of album that gains depth with each listen. --Francois Couture, All Music Guide