richard s. ginell reviewed the album for allmusic and wrote that the album "...finds brubeck in a friskier mood than in his previous, somewhat autumnal telarcs, even willing to take us back to the bombs-away block-chorded brubeck of the '50s and '60s on "it's deja-vu all over again." as an improvising pianist, he continues to be on his toes, sometimes falling back upon patented devices like those wide-screen moving tremolos, yet always finding interesting paths to develop". ginnell felt that "...very few of his themes or conceptions stay in the mind" with the exception of "marian mcpartland" and "waltzing", concluding that "though not his best, so what's new is ample testimony to brubeck's vitality in his indian summer".