The World Stage
| Billy Higgins | |
|---|---|
Billy Higgins in 1978.
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| Background information | |
| Born |
October 11, 1936 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 3, 2001 (aged 64) Inglewood, California |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, educator |
| Instruments | Drums |
| Associated acts | Ornette Coleman, Cedar Walton, Charles Lloyd |
Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.
Higgins was born in Los Angeles. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958. He then freelanced extensively with hard bop and other post-bop players, including Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Joe Henderson, 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. He was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played on dozens of Blue Note albums of the 1960s.
In his career, he played on over 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.
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