I was very surprised when I first saw the HV combo in concert; I hadn't known he had ditched the larger ensemble. I remember seeing the stage set-up and wondering what was going on. But I did like it and thought he was being true to his word in past interviews about trying to "make music for today" and not become a "cookie cutter Maynard Ferguson." So the album was not a shock, and I liked it. The second one as well.
The first BBN was a minor let-down because I would have rather had a new chart or two in place of the Medley. I never warmed up to the Medley, except for on his 60th birthday tour, I thought it was warranted then and phenomenal in performance---here he was at 60, after a full show, playing the highlights of several numbers for a finale---unreal!
I think about 2 years or so before he died there was talk that MF had the rights to High Voltage and was going to repackage the two albums as one CD, having to cut one number for space. There was some talk as to which should be cut: "Stardust" since it was too well-known, "Walking On The Pier" since it didn't have many fans, and so on. But the one-CD High Voltage never appeared....still not too late to do it!