The second collaboration on record by these two co-leaders inspired journalist Howard Mandel to write the following in the album's liner notes:

"No Saints No Sinners demonstrates with little obvious effort how its co-leaders' contrasting personalities are fully complementary, how expert sidemen can devote their unique talents to collective purpose, and how jazz serves as a model of the good that comes from embracing challenges and negotiating differences. Though Johns and Brianin wrote their pieces each on their own, the unity of their musics' affect reflects their close camaraderie, which dates back to their student years at New England Conservatory in the early '80s and has thrived as they've each survived the vagaries of life on the New York scene."