"[8] The Chicago Reader's Peter Margasak included the recording in his list of "ten favorite albums of jazz and improvised music led by Chicagoans" for 2013.

[9] Writing for All About Jazz, Hrayr Attarian stated: "This compelling record demonstrates that Brown's singular approach is very much in the spirit of his older and regretfully departed fellow citizens, [Fred] Anderson and [Von] Freeman.

"[6] Phil Freeman of Burning Ambulance commented: "Brown's playing is thick and slightly fuzzy around the edges, and steeped in the blues, almost like if Pharoah Sanders was a bar-walker in 1962...

Though Groove Awakening runs over an hour... it never turns into a slog; its pleasures are pure ones, with everyone involved playing straight from the heart.

"[10] In an article for JazzWord, Ken Waxman stated that the album demonstrates that "the mainstream saxophone and jazz combo traditions continue to flourish while mutating enough to welcome new ideas," and remarked: "the elastic groove that emanates throughout from Ben Israel, Ra and Cuz is just so unadulterated and effortless that it appears as if it could continue all night long, then pick up without a break the next morning... the high-gloss playing here confirms that in the right hands standards and originals are equally ripe for exploration and exhibition.