[1][2] The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 4½ stars stating "Brown Rice is the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words.

While Cherry would record a great deal of fine work in the years to come, he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again".

[1] Brian Morton and Richard Cook, writing for The Penguin Guide to Jazz, called Brown Rice "a lost classic of the era and probably the best place to sample the trumpeter as both soloist – he blows some stunningly beautiful solos here – and as the shamanic creator of a unique, unearthly sound that makes dull nonsense of most 'fusion' work of the period.… Exceptional and recommended.

"[2] The All Music Guide to Jazz, which reprinted Braurer's review, marked the album as a landmark recording.

[2] All compositions by Don Cherry except where noted Carl Brauer noted apparent errors in the album's credits: "Don Cherry does not play trumpet on 'Brown Rice,' but he does play it on 'Degi-Degi,' and for the life of me I can't hear Frank Lowe's tenor on that track.