In the liner notes, James Gavin describes the loneliness and financial hardships that the life of a touring jazz singer involves.

[3] The album was produced by American jazz trumpeter, arranger Don Sickler, his first recording project with Murphy.

[3] Musiker had previously backed many singers including Meredith d'Ambrosio, Audra McDonald, Judy Collins, Susannah McCorkle, Margaret Whiting, Ann Hampton Callaway, Mandy Patinkin, Helen Merrill, Dawn Upshaw, Barbara Cook and played in Buddy Rich's band.

[9] "Mark's jagged scat chorus, with its yelps, trills, and leaps into falsetto, owes as much to the avant-garde of the '60s as it does to bop," writes Gavin.

[10] Jazz pianist and composer James Williams, who worked with Art Blakey, wrote "You're My Alter Ego", his best known melody, with lyrics by Pamela Watson.

[13] Argentine jazz pianist, singer and composer Sergio Mihanovich wrote the ballad "Sometime Ago".

It has been recorded in instrumental versions by Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, Joe Pass, George Shearing, Clark Terry, and vocal versions by singers June Christy, Roseanna Vitro, Norma Winstone, and Irene Kral.

Speaking of Frank Sinatra's "I'm a Fool to Want You" Murphy said, "I've been fantasizing about doing that tune for twenty years," it is a "fantasy world" of "an older person, who lives a lot in memory".

[15] Scott Yanow, in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide, includes the album in his list of "other worthy recordings of the past 20 years" by Mark Murphy.

[17] Richard Cook and Brian Morton write, "Here approaching 70, Murphy has all the command and serene eloquence of the great jazz instrumental seniors.

At the same time, it takes enormous mastery to make such a convincing, beautiful matter out of 'The Peacocks' (with Norma Winstone's exceptional lyric)".

[3] He writes of Murphy's performance, "He keeps his scatting to a minimum, and amid the thrilling bebop of Cedar Walton's "Life's Mosaic" and "That Old Black Magic", there is also darkness.

and "I'm a Fool to Want You", the first done as a ballad, the second as a slow rhumba, Murphy sings some desperately sad and lonely a cappella lyrics, ruminating on the purpose of a life lived alone".

"[19] Describing Murphy's voice and performance, James Gavin says, "time has only made his reedy bass-baritone richer.

His vocal trademarks remain: the Ben Webster-like slides, the flashes of off-the-wall humor, the horn-player approach combined with a stark insight into words.