Point of Departure was an inflection point in Hill’s output for Blue Note, his penchant for formal complexity and compacted materials – which he revisited beginning in 1969 with a nonet date, tracks with a string quartet-augmented ensemble, and an album with voices – giving way to what proved to be a short-lived foray into the minimally scored pieces that distinguished Compulsion!!!!!. The two recording sessions were separated by only eighteen months, but they were among the most convulsive in jazz history, accounting for the pronounced contrasts between the resulting albums. - Bill Shoemaker
Track 1,2,3,4,5 from Point of Departure
Eric Dolphy - alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Kenny Dorham - trumpet
Andrew Hill - piano
Richard Davis - double bass
Anthony Williams - drums
Track 6,7,8,9 from Compulsion!!!!!
John Gilmore - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet, flugelhorn
Andrew Hill - piano
Cecil McBee - double bass on 6,7,9
Richard Davis - double bass on 8
Renaud Simmons - congas
Nadir Qamar - african drums & african thumb piano
Joe Chambers - drums
