In his earlier sets of home recordings, Armstrong would line the front of the tape box with photos from his life, often of obscure origins. They were photos of him on the road, with other famous musicians, of his wife Lucille and family, and some of fans who had visited "pops" at home. When he started this set, he didn't decorate the boxes, presumably because he was still too weak.

The mainstream press was quick to celebrate the concert and Ellington’s legacy, but danced around the merits of “Black, Brown, and Beige” itself. Praising the piece for being jazz’s longest-running tone painting, Time magazine concluded nonetheless that the composition “often seemed too ambitious. Likewise, the New York Times, while admitting “Black, Brown, and Beige” had “many exciting passages," stated that it was the shorter dance numbers where Ellington, as a bandleader, "seemed most himself."