At this time usually playing solo or with his trio, for these sessions Evans was the leader of an all-star quintet featuring Harold Land on tenor saxophone, guitarist Kenny Burrell, Ray Brown on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

Evans had never previously worked with Land, Burrell, or Brown,[1] but the quintet instrumentation, with tenor sax and guitar, mirrors that of the second Interplay session of 1962.

Writing for AllMusic, Scott Yanow called the album "a nice change of pace ... tasteful and explorative in a subtle way.

"[3] Biographer Keith Shadwick notes that Evans here "seems mostly concerned with being a pianist within a group rather than leading it by example, and the resulting album sounds very much a co-operative effort.

... Perhaps [Evans's] best and most concentrated playing comes on Thad Jones's ballad 'A Child Is Born' where he presents the first three minutes of the performance as a piano-trio arrangement, including a piano solo, before Kenny Burrell's entry."