Since that time, he has worked with several well-known jazz performers, including Paquito D'Rivera, Jon Faddis, John Patton Hamiet Bluiett, Henry Threadgill, and Paula West.
His compositions have been performed and recorded by Hamiet Bluiett, Red Rodney, Larry Willis, Mike Clark, Cecil Brooks III, Ray Mantilla, Hank Jones, Zé Eduardo, and the Manhattan New Music Project.
In 1968, Hemphill moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and co-founded the Black Artists' Group (BAG), a multidisciplinary arts collective that brought him into contact with artists such as saxophonists Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett, trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, and writer/director Malinke Robert Elliott.
Several other notable musicians were members of the band at one time or another, including Hamiet Bluiett, Cameron Brown, Ron Carter, Ricky Ford, Jimmy Garrison, Grachan Moncur III, Titos Sompa, and Buster Williams among others.