Chris Parker, Magazine editor and ex-Jazz correspondent of The London Times

"Still in Europe, but moving eastwards, UK bassist Arnie Somogyi's debut album as a leader, Cold Cherry Soup (Forged Records FRGCD 101; details on www.forgedrecords.com) was inspired by his search for his Transylvanian roots on a recent tour of the region. Featuring two Hungarians, the rich-toned saxophonist Tony Lakatos and limber guitarist Zsolt Bende, alongside pianist Liam Noble and drummer Winston Clifford, the album showcases not only the lithe, booming bass playing for which Somogyi is justly celebrated on the UK jazz scene, but also his more reflective side, captured both in his quietly intense solo contributions to his arrangements of Hungarian traditional melodies and in the odd earnestly eloquent theme-statement. Overall, though, it is the bassist's band as a unit, stormingly powerful but capable of an almost reverent delicacy, that shines throughout this consistently lively, imaginative and - most important - unequivocally enjoyable album."