Billy Higgins

Last updated • 9 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins.jpg
Higgins in 1978.
Background information
Born(1936-10-11)October 11, 1936
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedMay 3, 2001(2001-05-03) (aged 64)
Inglewood, California, U.S.
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s)Musician, educator
InstrumentDrums
Formerly of Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton, Charles Lloyd, Pat Metheny

Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop. [1]

Contents

Biography

Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. [2] Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958. [3] He then freelanced extensively with hard bop and other post-bop players, including Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Don Cherry, Paul Horn, Milt Jackson, Jackie McLean, Pat Metheny, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, David Murray, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Mal Waldron, and Cedar Walton. [3] He was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played on dozens of Blue Note albums of the 1960s. [3] He also collaborated with composer La Monte Young and guitarist Sandy Bull.

In his career, Higgins played on more than 700 recordings, including recordings of rock and funk. He appeared as a jazz drummer in the 2001 movie Southlander .

In 1989, Higgins cofounded a cultural center, The World Stage, in Los Angeles to encourage and promote younger jazz musicians. The center provides workshops in performance and writing, as well as concerts and recordings. Higgins also taught in the jazz studies program at the University of California, Los Angeles. [4]

Billy Higgins died of kidney and liver failure on May 3, 2001, at a hospital in Inglewood, California. [4]

Discography

As leader

As a sideman

With Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt

With Chris Anderson

With Gary Bartz

With Paul Bley

With Sandy Bull

With Jaki Byard

With Donald Byrd

With Joe Castro

With Don Cherry

With Sonny Clark

With George Coleman

With Ornette Coleman

With John Coltrane

With Junior Cook

With Bill Cosby

  • Hello, Friend: To Ennis with Love (Verve, 1997)

With Stanley Cowell

With Ray Drummond

  • The Essence (DMP, 1985)

With Teddy Edwards

With Booker Ervin

With Art Farmer

With Curtis Fuller

With Stan Getz

With Dexter Gordon

With Grant Green

With Dodo Greene

With Charlie Haden

With Slide Hampton
  • Roots (Criss Cross, 1985)

With Herbie Hancock

With Barry Harris

With Eddie Harris

With Johnny Hartman

With Jimmy Heath

With Joe Henderson

With Andrew Hill

With Christopher Hollyday

With Richard "Groove" Holmes

With Paul Horn

With Toninho Horta

With Freddie Hubbard

With Bobby Hutcherson

With J. J. Johnson

With Hank Jones and Dave Holland

With Sam Jones

With Clifford Jordan

With Fred Katz

With Steve Lacy

With Charles Lloyd

With Pat Martino

  • The Visit! (Cobblestone, 1972) also released as Footprints

With Jackie McLean

With Charles McPherson

With Pat Metheny

With Blue Mitchell

With Red Mitchell

With Hank Mobley

With Thelonious Monk

With Buddy Montgomery

With Tete Montoliu

With Frank Morgan

With Lee Morgan

With Bheki Mseleku

  • Star Seeding (Polygram Records, 1995)

With David Murray

With Horace Parlan

With Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

With Art Pepper

With Dave Pike

With Jimmy Raney

With Sonny Red

With Freddie Redd

With Joshua Redman

With Red Rodney

With Sonny Rollins

With Charlie Rouse

With Hilton Ruiz

With Pharoah Sanders

With Rob Schneiderman

With John Scofield

With Shirley Scott

With Archie Shepp

With Sonny Simmons

With James Spaulding

With Robert Stewart

With Sonny Stitt

With Idrees Sulieman

With Ira Sullivan

With Sun Ra

With Cecil Taylor

With Lucky Thompson

With the Timeless All Stars

With Bobby Timmons

With Charles Tolliver

With Stanley Turrentine

With Mal Waldron

With Cedar Walton

With Don Wilkerson

With David Williams

With Jack Wilson

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Cranshaw</span> American jazz bassist (1932–2016)

Melbourne Robert Cranshaw was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his later involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw performed in Rollins's working band on and off for over five decades, starting with a live appearance at the 1959 Playboy jazz festival in Chicago and on record with the 1962 album The Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil McBee</span> American jazz bassist

Cecil McBee is an American jazz bassist. He has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of classic jazz albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Heath</span> American drummer (1935–2024)

Albert "Tootie" Heath was an American jazz hard bop drummer, the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the double-bassist Percy Heath. With Stanley Cowell, the Heaths formed the Heath Brothers jazz band in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Cobb</span> American jazz drummer (1929–2020)

Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. At the time of his death, he had been the Sextet's last surviving member for nearly thirty years. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reggie Workman</span> American jazz double bassist

Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Berg</span> American jazz saxophonist (1951–2002)

Robert Berg was an American jazz saxophonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Coleman</span> American jazz saxophonist

George Edward Coleman is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idrees Sulieman</span> American bop trumpeter

Idrees Sulieman was an American bop and hard bop trumpeter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junior Cook</span> American saxophonist (1934–1992)

Herman "Junior" Cook was an American hard bop tenor saxophone player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford Jordan</span> American jazz saxophone player

Clifford Laconia Jordan was an American jazz tenor saxophone player and composer. Originally from Chicago, Jordan later moved to New York City, where he recorded extensively in addition to touring across both Europe and Africa. He recorded and performed with Art Farmer, Horace Silver, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson, and Kenny Dorham, among others. In later years, performed with Cedar Walton's quartet Eastern Rebellion, and led his own groups, including a big band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benny Bailey</span> American jazz trumpeter (1925–2005)

Ernest Harold "Benny" Bailey was an American jazz trumpeter.

Ronald Mathews was an American jazz pianist who worked with Max Roach from 1963 to 1968 and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He acted as lead in recording from 1963 and 1978–79. His most recent work was in 2008, as both a mentor and musician with Generations, a group of jazz musicians headed by veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb. He contributed two new compositions for the album that was released by San Francisco State University's International Center for the Arts on September 15, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Duvivier</span> American jazz double-bassist

George Duvivier was an American jazz double-bassist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Jones (musician)</span> American jazz double bassist, cellist, and composer

Samuel Jones was an American jazz double bassist, cellist, and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Booker</span> American jazz double bassist (1933-2006)

Walter Booker was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chick Corea discography</span> American pianist and composer

Chick Corea (1941–2021) was an American jazz pianist and composer born on June 12, 1941, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Corea started learning piano at age four. He recorded his first album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966. Corea performed with Blue Mitchell, Willie Bobo, Cal Tjader and Herbie Mann in the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s he performed with Stan Getz and Miles Davis. The National Endowment for the Arts states, "He ranked with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the leading piano stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he composed such notable jazz standards as 'Spain', 'La Fiesta', and 'Windows'."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mickey Roker</span> American drummer

Granville William "Mickey" Roker was an American jazz drummer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David "Happy" Williams</span> Trinidadian jazz double-bassist (born 1946)

David "Happy" Williams, is a US-based Trinidadian jazz double-bassist, who was a long-time member of Cedar Walton's group. Williams has also worked with many other notable musicians, including Woody Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz, Kenny Barron, Duke Jordan, Monty Alexander, Frank Morgan, Hank Jones, Charles McPherson, Larry Willis, George Cables, Abdullah Ibrahim, David "Fathead" Newman, Sonny Fortune, John Hicks, Louis Hayes, Jackie McLean, Clifford Jordan, Abbey Lincoln, Ernestine Anderson, and Kathleen Battle.

This is the discography for American jazz musician Richard Davis.

This is the discography for American double bassist Ron Carter.

References

  1. "Billy Higgins | Biography & History". AllMusic . Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  2. James Nadal (ed.). "Billy Higgins". All About Jazz . Archived from the original on 2010-05-05. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  3. 1 2 3 Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 202. ISBN   0-85112-580-8.
  4. 1 2 Ratliff, Ben (2001-05-04). "Billy Higgins, 64, Jazz Drummer With Melodic and Subtle Swing". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-11-16.