As per his usual, Jones/Baraka is good about the music as far as he goes. He just doesn't go far enough in too many cases, and this is one of them.
No "jazz critic" that I've ever read acknowledges (or even seems to be aware of) the strong influence of Oliver's "classical" saxophone studies on parts of his jazz playing. That thing he gets into with the harder-edge-removed tone, legato lines, even, highly controlled vibrato, and exactness of timbre in even the widest interval leaps, that's all coming from straight "legit" studies. Unambiguously so, if you've ever spent any time in that world (willingly or otherwise...).
His "Patterns For Improvisation" book has been used by more than a few such players over the years, and not to garner improvisational skills.
Oliver Nelson fit no one "bag" with any significant deal of comfort. No matter at what table he was sitting, even the uber-commercial ones, he always brought something "else" to it. I think Jones/Baraka mentioned something along those lines in another essay, something about Oliver Nelson bringing the sounds of blackness to the Land Of The Marlboro Man, or something like that.