Julius Hemphill formed the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Hamiet Bluiett and Oliver Lake in 1977 and was its most significant force as a player and writer. It's for this group that he is perhaps best known. He was one of the coterie of players on the seventies' New York loft scene. But where musicians like Murray and Chico Freeman went on to build careers, Julius Hemphill was more often spoken of then heard.

Tim Berne on Julius Hemphill:
"When I get too caught up in all the business shit, I try to remember the most important thing is the music and not worry about all that other stuff. He was just a great role model in terms of creativity. In order to grow you have to fail. You have to have a bad concert, or write something that doesn't work, so you can find out why. I realized that that's why you make records. It's not so you can sell them. It's really just so you can develop. He really embodied that. That's why he did it—to express himself."