Mingus as "some of the fastest company around." He repeatedly praised Mingus for pushing Ellington into new musical territory: "I've never heard Ellington play as he does on this album; Mingus and Roach, especially Mingus, push him so strongly that one can almost hear Ellington show them who's boss – and he dominates both of them, which is no mean accomplishment." Billboard was also positive, describing it as "memorable" for its content as well as "the historical importance of the three playing together". Much later reviews have been largely positive. Ken Dryden of AllMusic called it a "sensational recording session" and recommended it to "every jazz fan". The Penguin Guide to Jazz claimed that Mingus "completely steals the show", but suggested that the "long-standing Ellington staples" "Caravan" and "Warm Valley" are relatively weak renditions, and that Mingus either did not know the changes or was disgruntled on the latter track. The Financial Times in 2013 described it as "an angular piano-trio masterpiece that [...] confirmed Ellington's inherent modernism". Jay Trachtenberg of The Austin Chronicle praised Ellington's playing and "the modernity of his ideas", and said that the album "stands, more than ever, as a masterful meeting of jazz royalty." Writing of the record's 1986 "remixed and reprogrammed" reissue, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said "the angular chromaticism and modernist swing of this session relegate most piano-trio records back to the supper clubs." The sound quality of the original recording has been described as "disappointingly woolly", with "incidents of peaky distortion from the piano microphone". The stereo recording has the piano "up front and center", with the double bass "far to the right channel" and the drums "Strictly in the left channel and slightly behind the piano". Musicians Hundreds of musicians have been inspired by the album. Pianist Lafayette Gilchrist states that Money Jungle was the first jazz album that he bought, and that it "sounds like an orchestra being played by a trio. I was inspired to make something [...] big and grandiose just like that". Drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts observed that the members of the trio were "doing their thing, but they’re together", and compares this with later groups led by Keith Jarrett and Wayne Shorter, stating that the later groups "have a much freer way of doing it, but everybody's kind of in their own zone and yet they’re definitely playing the composition in tune with each other,