The other featured players are trumpeter Alan Shorter (brother of Wayne, here playing flugelhorn), alto saxophonist John Tchicai (Shepp’s fellow member of the New York Contemporary Five), bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Charles Moffett (who had worked extensively with Ornette Coleman).

Every time I'd call, his secretary, Lillian, whom I got to know very well, but at that point I hated her because she said, 'Well he's gone out to lunch,' or 'He's gone home and he's not coming back.'

After the third song, Bob, who had been really terribly rude at the beginning, smoking his pipe like a chimney, he brightened up a bit, sat down and said, 'I've got to call John and tell him this stuff is great.'

"[7] The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek states that "When it came to sheer exuberance and expression, [Shepp] was a force to be reckoned with in his youth, and it shows in each of the tunes recorded here.

"[9] Robert Spencer wrote that Shepp's arrangements "succeed beautifully, not in restating Coltrane's work on these pieces, but making them something new...

While Coltrane’s songs were widely thought of as empty platforms for blowing, Shepp shows here that they have the depth to stand a different treatment.

"[10] Leroi Jones stated that "[t]his group that Shepp has gotten together for this date cannot fail to delight and inspire anyone really interested in moving human expression.

"[11] He wrote: "the fact that this album is called Four for Trane demonstrates how much of an emotional allegiance Shepp feels he owes John Coltrane.

Archie is so much his own self that it is finally impossible to name one influence as having been the guiding one... his range of expression is so broad that he seems to take in or to have digested most of the ways of playing tenor saxophone.