By the mid-1970s, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, David Murray and Julius Hemphill were well known on the avant-garde jazz scene.

During a series of concerts in 1976 at Southern University in New Orleans, however, they coalesced into the one of the longest-running groups in jazz history: the World Saxophone Quartet (performing at Jazz Fest as the World Saxophone Group). Bluiett, who plays baritone with the group, rememb...