In a review for
All About Jazz, John Sharpe wrote: "one of the most striking traits is how much they sound like a band... This is an outfit which merits a longer run than it may get given the difficulty of getting the four principals together."
The Big Takeover's Michael Toland remarked: "These veteran heavy hitters bring all of their talents to bear on
Ode to O... It would be extremely difficult for these players to create bad music in the first place, but it's clear on
Ode to O the extra inspiration they take from each other's presence." In an article for
The Quietus,
Peter Margasak noted that the musicians have found "a bracing freebop sweet spot together," and wrote: "there's an abiding equanimity to the proceedings, imbuing the performances with grace regardless of how fiery things might get... The themes are elegant and memorable, elastic enough to support some fiery blowing and rhythmic dissection." Daniel Spicer of
Jazzwise praised the title track, calling it "a deceptively conventional hard-bop swinger with a big-grinned
joie de vivre," as well as "Da Bang" (dedicated to
Billy Bang), which "bursts out of an extended solo drum intro with an irresistible bass vamp heavy enough to establish its own gravitational field. Serious fun." A writer for
Glide Magazine stated: "OGJB take in both a wide swath of sound and emotion as they journey into startling, ever-unpredictable territory.... the spirit of Coleman's free expression prevails throughout, as if to form a more contemporary but less direct version of the acclaimed quartet
Old and New Dreams... who directly channeled Coleman's music." Gary Chapin of
The Free Jazz Collective commented: "I'm not going to call it effortless, but there's an ease to the group that comes from their decades of experience and the naturalness of their musical relationships. To me, OGJB represents a great time in the past, and a great time in the present." Jon Garelick of
The Arts Fuse selected the album as one of the ten best jazz releases of 2022. ==Track listing==