Barbara Higbie (born 1958) is an American Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 100 CDs including songs with Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt. The first female instrumentalist signed to Windham Hill records, [1] she also recorded solo or duo projects for Olivia/Second Wave records and Slowbaby Records. Higbie is a folk, jazz, pop, and fusion composer and singer-songwriter, noted for her highly melodic, jazz/folk performances. She has toured nationally and internationally since the early 1980s, and performed with Bonnie Raitt, Terry Riley, Pete Seeger, The Kronos Quartet, Jaron Lanier, Cris Williamson, Holly Near, Teresa Trull and Ferron.
Born in Michigan and raised in Indiana, she spent several years as a teenager in Ghana with her family, while her father, Nathan B. Higbie III helped establish the successful non-profit "Technoserve".[ citation needed ] Barbara also worked one summer in Honduras, Central America as a medical volunteer with the non-profit, Amigos de Las Americas. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Mills College,[ citation needed ] she attended the Sorbonne in Paris, and was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to collect traditional music in West Africa. [1] It was in Paris that she met Darol Anger and began a fruitful musical collaboration. Together they recorded the album Tideline (1982), one of the early successful records of Windham Hill.
In 1984, she co-lead a group live album recording at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which then became the successful group "Montreux" with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, Andy Narrell and Michael Manring. She recorded a critically acclaimed album titled Unexpected with singer Teresa Trull in 1983, which was included in The Boston Globe's Guide to Best Albums of 1983. [2] Higbie and Trull teamed up again on the 1998 release Playtime. Since 1990, Higbie has released a number of solo albums on the Windham Hill and Slowbaby labels. Her first solo album, 1990's Signs of Life (Windham Hill Records) was named one of the top ten albums of 1990 by The Washington Post .[ citation needed ] She is known as a versatile and soulful musician.
Higbie maintains an active touring schedule, both as a solo artist and as a member of the Windham Hill Winter Solstice ensemble. She has performed on all 7 continents and in all 50 states. As of 2019, Higbie is co-chair of the non-profit Board of the Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music (Freight and Salvage) in Berkeley, California. She has served on the board of the Freight on and off since 2005.
She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.[ citation needed ]
Solo
With Darol Anger
With Teresa Trull
With Montreux
Michael Alden Hedges was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter.
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute and soprano saxophone.
Patty Larkin is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a founding member of Four Bitchin' Babes. Her music has been described as folk-urban pop music.
Mike Marshall is a bluegrass mandolinist who has collaborated with David Grisman and Darol Anger.
Darol Robert Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet.
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William Ackerman is an American guitarist and record producer who founded Windham Hill Records.
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Ivan Neville is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to the other members of The Neville Brothers.
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Tuck & Patti are an American jazz duo consisting of guitarist William Charles "Tuck" Andress and singer Patricia "Patti" Cathcart Andress.
Steven Miller is an American record producer and executive. He is best known for his association with Windham Hill Records, where his ambient sound helped create notable instrumental recordings such as Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries, Mark Isham’s Vapor Drawings and George Winston’s December.
Teresa Trull is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album The Ways a Woman Can Be released on Olivia Records in 1977.
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The Turtle Island Quartet is a string quartet that plays hybrids of jazz, classical, and rock music. The group was formed in 1985 by David Balakrishnan, Darol Anger, and Mark Summer in San Francisco. They released their first album on Windham Hill Records in 1988 with Irene Sazer.
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.