The AllMusic review by Al Campbell awarded the album 4 stars, and stated, "Going a step further from the previous year's experiment with African drums on Metamorphosis, Breath of Life continues to find the sax quartet stretching the boundaries associated with its acappella approach of the past".[1]
The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings wrote: "Breath of Life has to be accounted an off-day in the WSQ's impressive progress. The playing is immaculate as ever, but there is a strange lack of focus in the writing, a bland equalization of voices, almost as if someone had called a truce on competing visions."[2]
Track listing
"Jest a Little" (Oliver Lake) – 9:14
"Cairo Blues" (David Murray) – 1:11
"Suffering with the Blues" (Conyers Temberton) – 5:39