World Saxophone Quartet

World Saxophone Quartet was an American jazz group formed in the late 1970s by Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett and David Murray. The four played saxophones and other reeds, from soprano to baritone, mixing written parts with free improvisation. Hemphill, Lake and Bluiett had already worked together in the Black Artists' Group in St. Louis. The quartet recorded its first album, Point of No Return, for Moers Music in 1977, and Revue came out on Black Saint. Arthur Blythe took Hemphill's chair after Hemphill left the group, and Hemphill died in 1995.