Jazz star createsmusic to make ends meet May 31, 2008
"I remember hisbright smile and warm personality that helped make him a joy to work with. For a short while, he, [drummer] Billy Higgins and I were the new "house" rhythm section for Blue Note Records. Although his formal music education seemed to me to be somewhat limited, his capacity to grow through experience was not. He was the kind of bass player that you could always depend on for the "groove. " Consistently, he and Billy Higgins were always tearing it up for the jazz fans. The crowd... (MSNBC -- Music)
Come Full Circle Mar 23, 2008
But the young saxophonist quickly fell into a jazz scene that included drummer Billy Higgins and saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. He got hired by Los Angeles stalwart bandleader Gerald Wilson - now still quite active at 89 - then by Chico Hamilton, with whom he made several classic albums, including "Man From Two Worlds" and "Passin' Thru.". (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Jazz pianist Chris Anderson dies Feb 14, 2008
As a result, he cut back on his work, but was a guest musician with pianist Barry Harris, drummer Billy Higgins (with whom he recorded) and others. A memorial will be held Monday, March 31 at St. Peter's Church, East 54 Street entrance between 3rd and Lexington in New York. (Variety)
Frank Morgan - noted alto saxophonist dies at 73 Dec 20, 2007
Over the years, he performed and recorded Parker numbers and other blues and jazz standards in the company of top musicians such as pianists Cedar Walton, Ronnie Matthews and George Cables and drummers Billy Higgins and Billy Hart. "This is a beautiful place to play," the good-humored Mr. Morgan said from the stage of the Bach Dancing ite Society near Half Moon Bay during a prime 1986 performance. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Frank Morgan; bop player reemerged after drug ordeal Dec 19, 2007
Music critic Robert Palmer, writing in The New York Times, called "Easy Living" - featuring pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Tony Dumas, and drummer Billy Higgins - "one of the year's great surprises and musical delights.". With a bebop revival under way in jazz, Mr. Morgan made the most of his second chance. (Boston Globe)
'I was trapped into being alive' Oct 18, 2007
"His paralysis has inspired rather than inhibited his musicality. He had been a drummer but, refusing to be "not bad for a cripple", he went through a long period where he barely played. His last album, Cuckooland, saw a glorious renaissance of his fluid, lush drumming style. "I'd been sitting in my room, listening to old jazz records, to how [the American jazz drummer] Billy Higgins keeps time. He] interested me very much because he hardly used the hi-hat for the off-beat, and of course as a... (Guardian Unlimited)
Great jazz festival on Jara Island Sep 16, 2007
This man from Memphis, this musician who has played with B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Billy Higgins -- his soulmate, the jazz drum master, with whom he made the classic two-CD work, Which Way is East -- and others like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Gerald Wilson, and the Beach Boys. This artist has come to Korea for the first time; he tours only rarely, but is always making music. (Korea Herald, Korea)
* 'The style cannot compete with the idea' Jul 2, 2007
With Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on double bass and Billy Higgins on drums, Coleman set the template, or lack of it, for what would become free jazz. Writing in Jazz Review, the critic Martin Williams argued that "what Ornette Coleman is doing on alto will affect the whole character of jazz music profoundly and pervasively." At the group's coming-out party, a residency at the Five Spot in New York in November 1959, Coleman polarized the crowd. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
Listening Post Mar 5, 2007
" Review: 2 1/2 stars (Jeff Simon) Ornette Coleman, "To Whom Who Keeps a Record" (Water). In the history of Grammy night surrealism, little has ever quite matched the sight of venerable jazz giant Ornette Coleman led out to center stage by a sheepish and almost apologetic Natalie Cole to give an award to Carrie Underwood (a fine young talent but one who wouldn't know Coleman's music from an Indonesian gamelan). Here, for glory's sake (and to explain why people want to give him "legend"... (Buffalo News -- Entertainment)
Revolutionary but still evolving Mar 4, 2007
Coleman, who a decade before the Beatles had shoulder-length hair and a beard, soon found a like-minded group of musicians, including Haden, who had performed in his family's bluegrass band back in Missouri; Don Cherry, who played a tiny pocket trumpet, and drummer Billy Higgins. He recorded his first album , "Something Else , " for Los Angeles-based Contemporary Records in 1958. (Boston Globe -- Living)
Piano legend Henry Butler visits Baldwin Feb 16, 2007
While his early albums were jazz trio recordings featuring such top-notch instrumentalists as Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, on Fivin Around in 1986, and Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette, on The Village two years later, Butler has increasingly turned to New Orleans music and the blues. His 1990 album, Orleans Inspiration , recorded with Leo Nocentelli of the Meters, was followed by Blues And More in 1992. (Truman Democrat, AR)
Leimert Park is jazzed for documentary Jan 28, 2007
There is also vintage performance footage of the late jazz drummer Billy Higgins and the late musician Horace Tapscott, who directed the renowned Pan African People's Arkestra. Other artists featured in the film include poet Kamau Daaood, who operates the World Stage, a performance and meeting gallery that opened on Degnan Boulevard in 1989. (Los Angeles Times)
