Liner notes were provided by Max Roach, who wrote: "This idea of four percussionists, using sounds as their premise in creating a work as profound as Pieces of Time, is pure artistic design.

[3] "Nibaldi Isle," by Moye, utilizes a variety of bells, shakers, and sound effects, yielding what Cyrille called "almost like a music of tones that would take you to a certain avenue or place.

"[1] The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz wrote: "Klook was the elder statesman at this astonishing confrontation, and he more or less steals the show with a seemingly effortless display that has the younger guys diving into their bags for ever more exotic wrinkles on the same basic sound.

"[7] The Washington Post's Mike Joyce commented: "A lot of lip service has been paid to 'jazz tradition' in recent years, but this ensemble represents a veritable jazz continuum...

Diverse yet remarkably cohesive, they range from the structured essays by Clarke... and Cyrille... and an emphatic free-form exercise by Graves... to the tropical lushness of Moye's familiar domain...