Eddie Higgins
Encyclopedia
Edward Haydn Higgins was a jazz
pianist
, composer
and orchestrator
.
, Higgins initially studied privately with his mother. He started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music
. An elegant and sophisticated pianist, his encyclopedic harmonic
approach and wide range of his repertory made him one of the most distinctive jazz pianists to come out of Chicago, gaining the respect of local and visiting musicians for his notable mastery of the instrument. Higgins also had the unusual ability to sound equally persuasive in a broad span of music, whether he was playing traditional swing, exciting bebop
or reflexive ballad
s, providing the tone and stylistic flavor of each styles, as both a soloist
and as accompanist
.
For more than two decades Higgins worked at some of Chicago's most prestigious jazz clubs, including the Brass Rail, Preview Lounge, Blue Note, Cloister Inn and Jazz Ltd. His longest and most memorable tenure was at the long gone London House, where he led his jazz trio from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, playing opposite the greatest jazz stars of this period, including Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans
, Errol Garner, Stan Getz
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Oscar Peterson
and George Shearing
, among others. Eddie's time spent at the London House Restaurant was with two of the best sidemen that Chicago has produced, bassist Richard Evans and drummer Marshall Thompson. Thompson was a very articulate drummer and teacher as well as a recording performer. One particularly notable event that took place at the London House was Richard Evans introducing drummer Maurice White
to jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis
. After his stint with Ramsey, Maurice went on to form the renowned group Earth, Wind and Fire. At the time of this introduction, Maurice was a studio drummer at Chess Records. Eddie also worked for Chess records as a producer.
During his stay in Chicago, Higgins also recorded a significant number of albums under his auspices and many more as a sideman with a wide variety of musicians, ranging in style from tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins
to Wayne Shorter
; trumpet
ers Bobby Lewis
to Freddie Hubbard
, and trombonists
Jack Teagarden
to Al Grey
. His versatility was captured on stage and records, backing up singers and leading his own projects as both pianist and orchestrator, working in every jazz circle from dixieland
to modal
styles.
In 1970, Higgins moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
and began spending winters in Florida and summers on Cape Cod, where he played in local clubs. Since the early 1980s, he traveled widely on the jazz festival circuit and has performed frequently in Europe
and Japan
. His releases on the Japan
ese Venus label earned him number one in jazz sales on more than one album.
In 1988, Higgins and jazz singer and pianist Meredith d'Ambrosio
were married and became a popular team at clubs and festivals, as well as recording for Sunnyside Records. In 2009, dates in Japan and Korea
were on his calendar of upcoming concerts, which were suspended due to a long illness.
Higgins died in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 77.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and orchestrator
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
.
Biography
Born and raised in Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Higgins initially studied privately with his mother. He started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music
Northwestern University School of Music
The Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, or Bienen School of Music, is an undergraduate and graduate institution devoted to musical performance and academics. Located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, the school was known as the...
. An elegant and sophisticated pianist, his encyclopedic harmonic
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
approach and wide range of his repertory made him one of the most distinctive jazz pianists to come out of Chicago, gaining the respect of local and visiting musicians for his notable mastery of the instrument. Higgins also had the unusual ability to sound equally persuasive in a broad span of music, whether he was playing traditional swing, exciting bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
or reflexive ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s, providing the tone and stylistic flavor of each styles, as both a soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
and as accompanist
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
.
For more than two decades Higgins worked at some of Chicago's most prestigious jazz clubs, including the Brass Rail, Preview Lounge, Blue Note, Cloister Inn and Jazz Ltd. His longest and most memorable tenure was at the long gone London House, where he led his jazz trio from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, playing opposite the greatest jazz stars of this period, including Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Errol Garner, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
and George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
, among others. Eddie's time spent at the London House Restaurant was with two of the best sidemen that Chicago has produced, bassist Richard Evans and drummer Marshall Thompson. Thompson was a very articulate drummer and teacher as well as a recording performer. One particularly notable event that took place at the London House was Richard Evans introducing drummer Maurice White
Maurice White
Maurice White is a Grammy Award–winning American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger. He is the older brother of Verdine White and Fred White and the leader and founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire...
to jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Lewis
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
. After his stint with Ramsey, Maurice went on to form the renowned group Earth, Wind and Fire. At the time of this introduction, Maurice was a studio drummer at Chess Records. Eddie also worked for Chess records as a producer.
During his stay in Chicago, Higgins also recorded a significant number of albums under his auspices and many more as a sideman with a wide variety of musicians, ranging in style from tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
to Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
; trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
ers Bobby Lewis
Bobby Lewis
Bobby Lewis is an African American rock and roll and R&B singer.-Biography:Lewis learned to play the piano by age six. Adopted at age twelve, he moved to a home in Detroit, Michigan...
to Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, and trombonists
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
to Al Grey
Al Grey
Al Grey was a jazz trombonist who is most remembered for his association with the Count Basie orchestra....
. His versatility was captured on stage and records, backing up singers and leading his own projects as both pianist and orchestrator, working in every jazz circle from dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
to modal
Modal jazz
Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework. Originating in the late 1950s and 1960s, modal jazz is characterized by Miles Davis's "Milestones" Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's classic quartet from 1960–64. Other important performers include...
styles.
In 1970, Higgins moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
and began spending winters in Florida and summers on Cape Cod, where he played in local clubs. Since the early 1980s, he traveled widely on the jazz festival circuit and has performed frequently in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. His releases on the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Venus label earned him number one in jazz sales on more than one album.
In 1988, Higgins and jazz singer and pianist Meredith d'Ambrosio
Meredith D'Ambrosio
Meredith D'Ambrosio is an American jazz singer born in Boston, Massachusetts.D'Ambrosio was born into a musical family and studied piano and voice from age six. She studied at the Boston Museum School in 1958-59, pursuing a career in painting as well as music...
were married and became a popular team at clubs and festivals, as well as recording for Sunnyside Records. In 2009, dates in Japan and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
were on his calendar of upcoming concerts, which were suspended due to a long illness.
Higgins died in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 77.
As leader
- 1986 - By Request (Solo Art) with Milt HintonMilt HintonMilton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...
, Bobby RosengardenBobby RosengardenRobert Marshall Rosengarden was a jazz drummer, percussionist and bandleader. A native of Elgin, Illinois, he was a solid and versatile contributor on countless recording sessions and playing in TV network orchestras and talk-show bands.Rosengarden began playing drums when he was 12, and later... - 1990 - Those Quiet Days (Sunnyside) with Kevin Eubanks, Rufus Reid
- 1994 - Zoot's Hymns (Sunnyside) with John Doughten, Phil Flanigan, Danny Burger
- 1997 - Haunted Heart (Sunnyside) with Ray Drummond, Ben RileyBen RileyBen Riley is an American hard bop drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Barron, and as member of the group Sphere...
- 1998 - Speaking Of Jobim (Sunnyside) with Jay LeonhartJay LeonhartJay Leonhart is a noted bassist and songwriter working in jazz and popular music. He has performed with diverse artists including Judy Garland, Carly Simon, Bucky Pizzarelli, Sting, and Frank Sinatra...
, Terry Clarke - 1999 - Time On My Hands (Arbors Records) solo
As sideman
- Meredith D'Ambrosio: Love Is Not A Game (Sunnyside, 1990); Shadowland (Sunnyside, 1992); Because Of Spring (Sunnyside, 1994)
- Chuck Hedges Just For Fun (Arbors Records)
- George Masso: The Wonderful World of George Gershwin (Nagel-Heyer, 1992)
- Lee Morgan: Indestructible Lee (Affinity, 1960)
- Sandy Mosse: Relaxin´ With Sandy Mosse (Argo/Fresh Sound, 1956)
- Wayne Shorter: Wayning Moments (Vee Jay, 1962)
- Sonny Stitt: Sonny's Last Recordings (Kingdom Jazz, 1981)
- Cy Touff: Touff Assignement (Argo/Fresh Sound, 1958)
External links
- [ All Music]
- Discography
- Obituary