McClintic Sphere is a character in "V " by Thomas Pynchon.

Sphere is an innovative saxophone player modeled on Ornette Coleman, though Sphere is also Thelonious Monk's middle name.

V contains a description of a gig in Greenwich Village, possibly at the Five Spot, based on the Ornette Coleman Quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins (or Ed Blackwell?) around 1960.