The album features guitarist Jimmy Herring, keyboard player T. Lavitz, bassist Alphonso Johnson, and drummer Billy Cobham.

[4] In a review for AllMusic, Jim Newsom wrote: "Longtime Dead listeners will recognize most of the melodies, but the arrangements and solos by this amazing quartet transform the originals... it is one of the most remarkable studio recordings to fall under the often-maligned jazz-rock fusion banner in many a year...

Through this project, they and their bandmates bring musical adventurousness, rhythmic complexity and instrumental virtuosity to a whole new generation, while rekindling the spark in those who were around for fusion's heyday 25 years earlier.

"[1] John M. Moran of the Hartford Courant called the album "a mildly pleasing but ultimately unsatisfying collection of jazz-tinged instrumentals," and noted: "Jazz is Dead falls short by sticking too closely to the Dead's original melodies and arrangements."

However, he concluded: "While their studio work could use a lot more spark, it wouldn't be surprising to find Jazz is Dead delivers a fireball of a live performance on these tunes.