Pianist Jaki Byard, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Roy Haynes all return from earlier Dolphy albums.

Beyond the obvious acknowledgment on song titles... his restless spirit is utilized as a guiding light for breaking bebop molds... Far Cry finds... Dolphy in a transitional phase, relinquishing Parker's governing universal impact and diving into the next controversial phase...'"[1] Similarly, Stuart Nicholson wrote: "as this album shows, his highly sophisticated style evolved out of bebop and Charlie Parker and was not devised in opposition to it, as many critics at the time thought."

"[7] In his review, David Rickert wrote that on Far Cry, "[e]verything that we've come to love about Dolphy is on display here, from the unorthodox instruments to the stuttering, belligerent solos that seem to go from New York to LA by way of Saturn", and called the album "a bold attempt to challenge the status quo".

[8] Martin Williams called Far Cry "evidence of what an ideal companion trumpeter Booker Little was for Dolphy—and what a loss to Dolphy's music Little's death was only ten months later.

As Far Cry shows, Little was moving gracefully, and with an easy and unforced trumpet sound, into musical areas in which Dolphy was already feeling comfortable.