[4] He soon bought his first drum set and began using free air travel passes to study with drummer Charles "Specs" Wright in Philadelphia.
That year, McCall moved to Paris and joined an existing group whose members were Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, and Leroy Jenkins.
During his stay in Paris, McCall served as a link between the first generation of European free jazz musicians and members of the AACM, playing and recording with Willem Breuker, the Instant Composers Pool, John Surman, Tony Oxley, and Gunter Hampel.
During the mid to late 1970s, McCall also performed and recorded with Abrams, Billy Bang, Arthur Blythe, Ted Curson, Chico Freeman, Cecil McBee, and Butch Morris.
However, McCall received equal billing with tenor sax player Fred Anderson on the posthumously released Vintage Duets album, recorded in 1980 and issued in 1994.
[5][20] Writer Gary Giddins called McCall "an immensely likable man whose work with Air was a benchmark of the '70s",[21] and praised his drumming as "ingeniously volatile".
[22] The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz noted McCall's "ability to combine forward drive with outbreaks of complete rhythmic anarchy".
[23] John Litweiler wrote that McCall's "sensitivity to subtle gradations of sound textures... put him in wide demand as an accompanist; uniquely in jazz, he was a drummer who conveyed emotional subtlety.
[27] With Air With Fred Anderson With Creative Construction Company With Muhal Richard Abrams With Billy Bang With Amiri Baraka With Arthur Blythe With Lester Bowie With Anthony Braxton With Marion Brown With Ted Curson With Chico Freeman With Claudina y Alberto Gambino With Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons With Gunter Hampel With Instant Composers Pool With Joseph Jarman With Siegfried Kessler and Barre Phillips With Byard Lancaster With Jeanne Lee With Ramsey Lewis With Cecil McBee With E. Parker McDougal and Chicago Hard-Core Jazz With Roscoe Mitchell With Butch Morris With David Murray With Cecil Taylor