[4] The album was produced by Don Sickler and Thelonious Monk Jr.[5] The Ottawa Citizen deemed the album "a straightforward hard bop collection with compositions that come mostly from the mid-50s.

"[8] The Indianapolis Star wrote that, "though the arrangements are based on originals recorded by his father's generation, this doesn't seem like a ghost-band venture.

"[7] The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow stated: "Drummer T.S.

Monk's debut as a leader in jazz found him discarding his earlier R&B-ish music in favor of heading an impressive hard bop revival group ...

Monk Sextet was just beginning its long life with this recording; all of its CDs are highly recommended to hard bop fans".