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“The players are tightly focused on a modal groove with Ranelin and Washington engaged in gorgeous interplay with killer work from Black and Franklin, especially on the latter tune, which also features a stellar bass clarinet solo by Louis Van Taylor. The Afro-Latin “Song for Velader” contains beautiful front line work. The Spanish-tinged “Moorish” is a post-bop exploration of flamenco and Sephardic music with stellar conga work from Black. On the ballad “Within Her Smile,” his trombone literally sings against Franklin‘s lilting bassline. The uptempo “Mystic Destiny” with its knotty head swings like mad, and the lyric hard bop tribute to J.J. Johnson, “One for Johnson,” features excellent rhythm section work and a Ranelin solo in the vein of the cut’s subject. Ranelin‘s compositions and charts are expressive, but are free of unnecessary musical verbiage. Ranelin and his ensemble are completely committed on Perseverance, where disciplined technical craft, and expansive melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic possibilities are presented as a musical language. Combined together with his requisite empathy and subtlety, this album defines Ranelin as a true jazz master.” — All Music
