Perhaps to a greater degree than any other instrument, the guitar is adept at adapting to musical change. Its myriad of applications transcend genre boundaries and make it arguably the most frequently conscripted voice in Western music. Here [is a] disc that feature[s] the guitar as prominent fulcrum, celebrating both its versatility and diversity in improvided music settings.

[Flip!] holds an uncanny resemblance to another project of near identical instrumentation — the recent ScoLoHoFo date on Blue Note that matched the talents of John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Dave Holland and Al Foster. Both sessions stake the time-tested template of teaming top-flight players in a jam session-type studio situation. It's a tack that looks good on paper, but usually yeilds solid if somewhat predictable results. In the liner notes this band lays out their shared credo of staying creative while still keeping things accessible with ears always attuned to the groove. This represents their third time together as a group and the manifesto is maintained across ten tracks that allow for improvisational elasticity, but rarely traffic in the rarefied tonic of true surprise. The title track unfolds as an up tempo cooker that revolves on a circular thematic riff. Monder plays the role of chordal anchor and Parsons' saxophone spins like a tetherball around a pole. "Alone in the Loveseat" is all bright melodic colors and steady pulsing beat, and the airy surroundings deflate any sense of edge, even during technically accomplished solos from Parsons, Monder, and Lewin. The Tolkien-inspired "Tookish" injects some welcome harmonic complexity through a modal architecture and Monder's shimmering fretwork, but it still feels like the players are coasting. Patitucci spends the first half sculpting agile counterpoint to Parsons' winding tenor lines before stretching out for a knuckle-flexing solo flanked by Monder's flanging accents and Lewin's pattering brushes. The lone standard of the session, "East of the Sun," is cast largely in the same sort of by-the-numbers arrangement as the tunes that precede it, but benefits from Patitucci's noirish bass line and the versatile stick work of Lewin. Unfortunately, Parsons' languorous tenor phrases and Monder's humdrum riffing registers as more milquetoast than memorable. By the time the tango-tinged "Sintigo" rolls around, the date's charm has largely wilted under the weight of what has come before and the lazy temp of the track does little to turn the tide. Shaving a couple of cuts and tightening up the existing ones could have improved this date. To often it sounds like the performances are more for the edification of the players than the audience. As it stands, it's an exemplary representation of four first-string jazzmen having a friendly and self-congratulatory time in the studio.

— Derek Taylor, Cadence, September 2003, page 46

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