The album was recorded at the Théâtre antique de Vienne on July 1, 1991, the opening night of the Jazz à Vienne festival.[4] The set included interpretations of songs by pop musicians Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Prince. Davis died less than three months later, making this one of his final live performances.[5]
Reviews for the album have been largely positive. Writing for AllMusic, Thom Jurek noted "While none of this music is revelatory, it is intuitive and energetic," and described Davis's playing as "surprisingly muscular" despite the proximity to his death.[5]Tom Moon considered it a quality late-era performance in Davis's career, writing "Where some late Davis performances tended to wander, this one is all show-biz discipline" in his JazzTimes review.[6] In All About Jazz, Ian Patterson noted problems with the sound quality and mixing, but compared Davis's "brooding, melancholy and quite gorgeous" phrasing positively to his performance on Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.[1]
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