[5] In a review for AllMusic, Al Campbell wrote: "The unique front-line horn arrangement of trombonist Roswell Rudd and Danish alto saxophonist John Tchicai weaves rapid intricate lines around Lewis Worrell's bass and the frenzied drums of Milford Graves.

While it may sound like an intrusion to some listeners, it must be kept in mind that Jones was an active participant in the early avant-garde scene of New York, making his contribution to this disc vital in capturing the radical surroundings in which the music thrived.

Regarding the inclusion of "Black Dada Nihilismus", Allen wrote: "'Nihilismus' is a beat follow-up to Eliot's 'The Wasteland' in the clothes of mid-60s New York, 'cool' as dead, disheartened and disaffected with no place in any artistic or racial community, yet somehow affirming singularity as solitude.

In a way, the inclusion of Baraka's (Jones) poem perfectly mirrors the in-betweenness of the group, who certainly had grand claims as to their music as art-music, creative and experimental, but whose approach to that very artfulness was always brusque and extremely 'street'.

It was much more sparse and spacious, almost like chamber music — Worrell's bowed bass had the emotional resonance of a cello, and behind him, Graves' drumming was free but highly complex and intuitive.