Billboard : 02/22/1964
Special Merit Pick

The point of departure is actually the point of entry for Gary McFarland, closely associated with the many jazz compositions bearing his name. This is a collection of all new McFarland works and the composer takes part in performing them with a newly formed sextet featuring Willie Dennis, Richie Kamuca, Jimmy Raney, Steve Swallow, Mel Lewis. Jazz fans will find much to listen for and enjoy in this LP.

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Cashbox : 02/29/1964

In an era when vibists are becoming quite rare indeed, Gary McFarland comes up with this top-drawer set which spotlights his own vibistic talents and bows, for the first time on wax, his Sextet. The McFarland approach is an easy-going midstream style with each member of the group given ample opportunity to display his individual abilities. Highlights of the disk include Sandpiper, Hello To The Season, and I Love To Say Her Name. Jazzophiles should find plenty to dig here.

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Asbury Park Press
Don Lass : 04/11/1964

Young McFarland has developed a substantial reputation arranging for large orchestras, his own and those of established leaders. Here he parts with the big band format and devotes his considerable skills to a group of his own choosing, a sextet of stellar jazzmen. The arrangements are neither as complex nor as provocative as many of his previous works, but there is the individual stamp of McFarland on all seven tracks, of which he composed six.

There is an eerie, almost weird sound to many of these pieces that effectively tells the story implied in the title. Pecos Pete, for example, is a lament for a lonely cowboy and the ensemble sounds attain that feeling. Hello to the Season, on the other hand, reflects the joy and humor one would expect of the title. This is the mark of McFarland and it sets him apart from other arrangers.

All the tracks are interesting for they explore a wide variety of melodic and rhythmic patterns, thus avoiding the “jam session” free-for-all atmosphere that is too standard in jazz recordings. McFarland also shows here a great deal of originality on vibraphone though he is limited in technique.

Willie Dennis, trombone, is the outstanding solo voice and drummer Mel Lewis handles the intricate rhythmic patterns with ease. Richie Kamuca, tenor sax, Steve Swallow, bass, and Jimmy Raney, guitar, complete the cast.

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Charlotte News
Jerry Reece : 03/28/1964

Gary McFarland has made his reputation in jazz primarily as an arranger but with the release of Point Of Departure he begins to emerge as a strong combo leader and vibraharpist.

Fronting a sextet including Willie Dennis on trombone, Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Jimmy Raney on guitar, and Steve Swallow on drums, Gary leads his charges through six McFarland originals and the theme from “David and Lisa.”

The group sounds fine on all sides but on Shlock-House Blues they show what heights they are capable of scaling and how swinging and melodic McFarland’s writing can be.

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Charlotte Observer
Paul Jones : 03/15/1964

Known chiefly as a composer-arranger for other bands and jazz groups, Gary McFarland now displays his talents as a vibraharpist and writer within the framework of his own group, a sextet.

Point Of Departure is a highly listenable, imaginative album that features McFarland on vibes, Willie Dennis on trombone, Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Jimmy Raney on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass and Mel Lewis on drums.

The tunes are: Pecos Pete, Love Theme From David and Lisa, Sandpiper, Amour Tormentoso, Schlock-House Blues, I Love To Say Her Name and Hello To The Season.

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Raleigh News and Observer
R.L. : 02/23/1964

One of the most pleasant of the Impulse! albums is Point of Departure, featuring vibist Gary McFarland‘s sextet (Jimmy Raney, guitar; Mel Lewis, drums; Steve Swallow, bass; Willie Dennis, trombone; and Richie Kamuca, tenor sax and oboe). McFarland not only is an excellent vibes man, but the collective sound of his group is exceptional. It has all the musicianship of the Modern Jazz Quartet, but without that foursome’s sometimes exasperating introspection. The seven tunes range from blues to ballads, with occasional blends of the two.

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Lancaster Sunday News
Mary Campbell : 09/13/1964

The Gary McFarland Sextet does Point of Departure, Impulse Records. McFarland, who is 30, is a talented composer and arranger as well as vibraharpist. And when he performs, he makes his music seem like good modern art – worthy of spending some time with and appreciating.

The versatile group plays some blues, creates some energy and does an ethereal treatment of the theme from “David and Lisa.”

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Liner Notes by Martin Williams

This LP announces the formation of a Gary McFarland Sextet – a most welcome event for the leader’s career, not to mention for the pleasure of his listeners. Until now this highly talented young composer-arranger seemed destined to follow the path of his immediate predecessors and write in something of a creative vacuum – turning out scores for this big band one day, that name singer the next day, and a middle-sized recording group of such and such an instrumentation the following week. No matter how stimulating and interesting a jazz composer may find such a constant variety of tasks, and no matter how well he may execute his assignments, he will seldom encounter the ultimate challenge of close and constant collaboration between composer and group, between his own talents as arranger and the talents of given players, individually and collectively, that have so often been the basis of the highest achievements in jazz.

For if you think about it, the great jazz composer-arrangers have worked collaboratively with their groups. The supreme example of course is Duke Ellington, to whom all others pay homage.

Nor are high achievements resulting from such collaborations limited to jazz. We are apt to think of Greek or Elizabethan plays as moving experiences which call to us timelessly across the centuries. Yet the facts are that these plays were first conceived for the specific talents of established groups of actors. (And, we should add, they make individual interpretations of traditional forms and ideas – as jazz musicians do.) Similarly, European composers have often done their best work for specific singers and instrumentalists. And many a surviving classic ballet was originally written for an established corps of dancers.

During the past ten years we have seen few comparable examples in jazz. The written and improvised collaboration of John Lewis as composer and pianist with the Modern Jazz Quartet is one, to be sure. But otherwise? The Jimmy Giuffre trio; the George Russell group. Of course, such and such an arranger may know such and such a big band he often writes for, when he will “bring something in” for it, but that is not quite the same thing.

Gary McFarland has chosen to work with six men, a choice which is not a compromise on his part but a decisions based on his ideas the way he wants to make music. The decisions is also based on the individual players – Gary wasn’t just filling a chair already set up for trombone, tenor sax, guitar or whatever, when he chose these men.

The members of the sextet were picked for individual and collective virtues – hand picked by Gary McFarland as a matter of fact, “to subordinate a desire to take choruses all around on every piece, and to consider the ensemble as well.” But the players don’t just play, just read off the notes on their parts, and improvise when the piece of paper placed before them says to improvise. “We are a group of six minds,” says Gary. “All the other players make suggestions about the charts, and I will change things to suit one man or the group as a whole.

“I was honored to be able to get Jimmy Raney, says McFarland, categorically. “He is such a good soloist. I have never heard him play a bad chorus. His lines are sometimes involved, but they have the best elements, the essentials, of music with such clarity that they never sound complicated or cluttered.” On the other hand, I would add, don’t miss his accompanying either.

McFarland knew of Richie Kamuca (late of the West Coast, but now of New York) of course, as do most followers of jazz, “but when I heard he played six or seven different instruments – well my face just lit up.” You will hear Kamuca’s oboe, besides his tenor saxophone, on this LP. His always lyrical tenor is appropriate to several of McFarland’s compositional moods.

“I love Willie Dennis‘ tone, an old-fashioned, bittersweet sound, if you will,” Gary says, adding, “Unlike so many trombonists nowadays, he isn’t trying to sound like J.J. Johnson. As an ensemble musician, Dennis is conscientious with his part, always trying to get the most out of everything he plays. And he is a good soloist.”

About bassist Steve Swallow, McFarland says, “For a young guy he has so much of the history of jazz – I should say of the history of music – at his command. He feels his way into any kind of music. He is aware of the spirit of any kind of group or any style. Yet he doesn’t really change his own.”

My own feeling about Mel Lewis is that he is one of the most deceptive drummers I have ever heard. I have often had to stop and make myself aware of just how much drums he is playing, for he is so unobtrusive a craftsman. Gary would apparently agree: “He has always been my favorite big band drummer (both he and Gary worked with the Gerry Mulligan Concert Band), but I did not know how well he would play in a small group. Then I heard him playing with Zoot Sims, and I knew I wanted him. I never write much of a part of him except for a few indications. We just exchange looks now and then as the group runs over a piece. With instruments like vibes and guitar, you know, a drummer has to be very discreet. I also like the variety in his cymbal work. Frankly, I hate to hear a drummer us the same ride cymbal continuously. Mel picks a different cymbal for each piece – and for the different parts of the same piece.”

I think one might use the energetic Pecos Pete to illustrate the singular variety-plus-order one finds in McFarland’s music. The opening immediately suggests several things: the blues, the Southwest and Cowboy balladry. And the piece is a vehicle for several solo improvisors. Yet we hear a continuous performance of a score with a character of its own.

David and Lisa is Gary’s own stately and functional reading of the theme from Frank Perry’s film, which Gary has seen about five times now. Perhaps we can henceforth count this melody as among several others which jazzmen have rescued from soundtracks and perpetuated – I am thinking of pieces like Laura, Stella by Starlight, Love Letters, Green Dolphin Street, etc.

If you’ve ever watched one of the birds in deliberate yet fluttering and pecking movements, the logic of the title, Sandpiper, will be clear to you. The opening depends on a subtle cooperation between high pitches from Mel and Gary. The piece is another blues, and Gary has managed to get a full and varied scoring from his six pieces, especially in his opening, but without any trickery. I was also struck by the choruses of exciting, simultaneous improvising included here: Gary; then Gary and Steve; then Gary, Steve and Mel; then Steve and Mel, in fascinating succession.

Amour Tormentoso is a strong title for a self-consoling lament, again with Southwestern connotations. Of this own wordless vocal portion, Gary says, “When I was working on this, I would always hum this part, thinking of a guy alone in a room. I found I just couldn’t hear it any other way.”

Schlock-House Blues, with its churning opening, gets its title from Gary’s understanding of a Yiddish word which is usually used to mean cheap, shoddy furniture. Here it refers to the rare bargains a lady of his acquaintance uncovers in inexpensive shops. The performance makes a marvelously skillful use, by both composer and players, of the string-of-solos approach. Notice how the rhythm shifts as Kamuca begins. Then notice that Dennis’ choruses begin with the broken rhythms of stop-time. (And notice Raney’s accompaniment to him!) Notice that Gary’s choruses are preceded by a re-phrasing of the theme, to re-establish the basis of things. notice the contrastingly spare rhythm under Steve Swallow’s solo. And notice that the rhythm section doubles under Jimmy Raney. All this, with no discontinuity, with nothing but a feeling of straight-ahead momentum from beginning to end.

I Love To Say Her Name is a mobile love-confession with some backgrounds succinctly delivered by Dennis; with more exciting simultaneous improvising, this time by Raney and McFarland; and with another effective written paraphrase of the theme.

McFarland says that as a writing for melodies he always finds himself thinking first in terms of song rather than instruments, not only of traditional song forms but of themes with vocal qualities. Yet Hello To The Season is one of several examples of how his works are instrumentally expandable, and how they can contain a variety of treatments withing a single lyric outline.

Now, enough of Gary’s comments and my reactions. To the music, and your own.