Rolling Stone's Bob Palmer wrote "Bap-Tizum features dozens of instruments (all the saxophones from soprano to bass, tempered and non-tempered percussion, etc.) and sequences of colours and moods which range from energy-raising to reflection to explosive anger to sheer soul strutting... The performance gassed ten thousand people, most of whom had never heard of the group, and Atlantic is to be commended for releasing it in all its rough hard-edged grandeur."[5]
The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 5 stars noting that "the Art Ensemble holds back nothing in a chaotic, meandering, exasperating, outrageous -- and, thus, always fascinating -- performance".[6]
Critic Michael G. Nastos calls the album "essential".[7] Author Rafi Zabor describes the album as a "riotous" real-life analogue to his depiction of a fictional, tumultuous Art Ensemble performance in The Bear Comes Home.[8]
^Zabor, Rafi (1997). "A Listener's Guide". The Bear Comes Home. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 481. ISBN0-393-31863-X. For the best analogue - including specific compositions, flying obscenities, and perhaps even pistol shots - of the Art Ensemble's own appearance in these pages, I'd recommend the riotous Bap-tizum on Atlantic.
