The 1997 CD release combined the first volume with a live recording from October 29, 1980, in West Berlin.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz made the album part of their "Core Collection" of essential jazz albums and awarded the compilation a "Crown" signifying a recording that the authors "feel a special admiration or affection for".

[2][4] The Allmusic review by William York said that the album was "a rare balance of form and freedom, wildness and restraint that makes it continually surprising (at times even jarringly so) as well as remarkably durable in terms of repeated listening".

As a result potential pitfalls vanish into thin air as they achieve a kind of mobility rare outside of Sun Ra and a freedom that must have been sweet indeed".

[5] At Perfect Sound Forever Steve Kulak wrote, "Those lucky enough to be there would no doubt have witnessed first hand what was meant by "an insanely accelerated history of jazz."