[2] According to All About Jazz writer Mark Werlin, Coltrane was initially overlooked in the music press, and later by music historians, because of the "hostility and incomprehension" that had met the saxophonist's controversial performances alongside fellow saxophonist Eric Dolphy at the Village Vanguard in 1961 and on tour in the US and Europe: "[The album] was intentionally shadowed—at the time of its recording—by a campaign of uninformed music criticism and personal attacks on Coltrane and Dolphy published in prestigious American newspapers and the preeminent jazz magazine Down Beat.

reissued Coltrane as a two-CD deluxe edition with the disclaimer that it used "second-generation, compressed and equalized tapes of all tracks", except "Miles' Mode", whose original master was still in existence, along with bonus tracks and alternate takes mastered from original recordings.

[4] In 2016, the Verve Label Group rereleased the album in commemoration of Coltrane's 90th birthday, as a 192kHz/24bit digital download.

[3] AllMusic's Michael G. Nastos calls the album "a most focused effort, a relatively popular session to both [Coltrane's] fans or latecomers, with five selections that are brilliantly conceived and rendered.

[5]Francis Davis of The Village Voice feels that, apart from the "modal, three-quarter time novelty hit" "The Inch Worm", consumers should buy the album for "the gorgeous 'Soul Eyes' and a shattering 'Out of This World'.