He commands the album, framing his musicians with richly textured chord voicings one minute, and launching into evocative improvisational asides the next.

[14] Writing for JazzTimes, Thomas Conrad stated, "The set list is not unusual, containing mostly recent originals plus typical choices like a Brazilian piece and a Monk tune.

"[7] Paddy Cahoe of RTÉ.ie added "Kenny Barron's Concentric Circles is the legendary jazz pianist's first bona fide quintet release since 2003's Images and it is a fine affair, skirting around the lighter edges of bop, with Afro-Latin and bossa nova traces".

[6] Dave Gelly of The Guardian commented "Now, a pianist, composer and bandleader of apparently infinite resource and ingenuity, he records albums as close to perfection as anyone could wish.

[5] Keith Black writing for Winnipeg Free Press added, "Kenny Barron has been a gift to the jazz world for 50 years and hopefully is not close to being done yet.