In a review for
PopMatters, Brent Faulkner wrote: "Track after track, Rudd's musicianship and sharpness impresses, making
Trombone for Lovers shine radiantly." Writing for Latin Jazz Net, Raul Da Gama described the album as "a look at timeless standards, by which he has made them timeless again, re-creating them completely with all their ageless beauty, making them ripple through the flesh and the bone; through body and soul, touching the very nerve endings of the body with notes that are charged with emotion in every muted growl and angular human smear."
Tom Hull commented: "With the 'Joe Hill' suite at the end, this could have been called
Trombone for the Masses: I don't mind the rapper there but the NYC Labor Choir takes some getting used to even though I feel like saluting the political point. Everything else is just superb." Jeff Simon of
The Buffalo News remarked: "Here is one of the goofiest jazz discs you'll encounter in a while. All of Rudd's muting – with plungers and otherwise – can't disguise the
cognitive dissonance of his use of the trombone as yearning instrument of love." ==Track listing==