[4] The album was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey and features Dolphy in a quintet with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Jaki Byard, bassist George Tucker and drummer Roy Haynes.

is dedicated to the Californian bandleader Gerald Wilson,[4] "Les" is named after the trombonist Lester Robertson,[7] and "245" was the number of Dolphy's house on Carlton Avenue, in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood.

Hunter wrote: "While the rest of the band lays down beats and fills that would not be out of place on any bop date, Dolphy steps out of the head to blister us with a mind-boggling, lightning-fingered alto solo that threatens to go over a cliff at any moment.

"[10] Writing for PopMatters, Sean Murphy stated that Outward Bound "brings together a handful of the finest musicians who ever played their respective instruments, and it's more than a little coincidental that, when put in the same environment with a common purpose, there was an affinity and extra edge they conjured up, seemingly out of nowhere...

Outward Bound, in sum, is a top tier effort from a tremendous quintet, and it signals the start of an abbreviated but incendiary burst of creative genius.