From nearby Fort Ord military base servicemen were bused to join the enthusiastic and receptive audience at this Erroll Garner Trio gig.

[3] Glaser took the tape, put it into album form, and then played it for the head of Columbia Records' jazz division, George Avakian, who decided to release it.

Music journalist Marc Myers wrote that "[f]rom an aesthetic standpoint, Art Kane's [Concert by the Sea] cover had grace, movement and drama.

The 2015 release of the entire concert again paid tribute to Kane's original photograph, showing a model with outstretched arms standing in front of a rocky shoreline.

[8] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave it 3½ stars out of 4 (and added it to the book's suggested Core Collection), asserting that: "Concert by the Sea is essentially neither more nor less than a characteristic set by the trio".