Howard Biggs
| Howard Biggs | |
|---|---|
From Billboard 1944 Music Yearbook
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Howard Maceo Biggs |
| Born |
October 13, 1916 Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Died | November 24, 1999 (aged 83) Houston, Texas, US |
| Genres | R&B, jazz, musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, songwriter, arranger |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1927- c.1980 |
| Associated acts |
Noble Sissle The Ravens The Silhouettes |
Howard Maceo Biggs (October 13, 1916 – November 24, 1999) was an American pianist, songwriter and arranger. He is noted for his involvement with doo-wop and other styles including jazz, and was influential in the first days of rock and roll.
Born in Seattle, Washington, the son of naval machinist Antonio Biggs and Thelma Buchanan, he learned piano as a child and gave his first concert at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city at the age of ten. He studied at the University of Washington before becoming resident composer with the Negro Repertory Company in Seattle. In 1937 he composed the score for the company's production An Evening with Dunbar, based on the life and poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and wrote several songs incorporating Dunbar's words as well as directing the theatre chorus. In 1939 he wrote the score for a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, performed in Seattle by the Federal Theatre Negro Unit.
After touring as a concert performer, he played in lounges on the West Coast before heading east to join Noble Sissle's orchestra. By 1944, he was performing in clubs in New York City. At that time, Billboard said of him: "Unlike most colored pianists, he doesn't lean much to boogie-woogie, but specializes in unusually smart arrangements of pops, show tunes, middlebrow and classics." He became established as a pianist with the Luis Russell Orchestra, before working as pianist and arranger with many R&B vocal groups on their live performances and recordings, starting with The Ravens, with whom he worked from 1946 to 1949. He wrote two of the Ravens' first hit records, "Write Me a Letter", credited as the first R&B record to hit the national pop top 25, and "Bye Bye Baby Blues", and co-wrote several others with the group's singer Jimmy Ricks. Biggs then joined another group, the Beavers, for whom he wrote "I'd Rather Be Wrong Than Blue" with Joe Thomas, who had previously been a saxophonist in Jimmie Lunceford's band.
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