Billy Higgins

And the name of the song that Lee gave us is called Dear Sir.

It features Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter tenor sax, Bobby Hutcherson on the vibes, Herbie Hancock piano, Ron Carter bass, Billy Higgins on drums.

Now, Lee Morgan was a member of the finishing school of jazz, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

We began the set with a little Dixieland music by Alan Toussaint.

Thank you.

Higgins lost his hi-hat on that one.

That was Lee Morgan from the 1967 record The Procrastinator.

The tune was Stop Start.

It featured Wayne Shorter's tenor saxophone, Bobby Hutchison at the vibraphone, Herbie Hancock piano, Ron Carter bass, and Billy Higgins at the drums.

Now here's Sherelle Cassidy.

Thank you.

Okay.

I read that early on you got to associate with Billy Higgins.

I saw Billy Higgins at Yoshi's before he passed away.

Smiling Billy, who, you know, drum solos are like stories, you know, he's just like, what was Higgins like?

Man, he was, he was, he was like, it was like knowing Superman perfectly.

It was, you know, we were kids and, you know, we, you know, for us, you know, South Central L.A., we all grew up playing in this area called Leimert Park.

And Billy Higgins had a club there called the World Stage.

And it was actually my very first concert I ever went to.

I love you.

And I want to shout out Billy Higgins before we go any further.

I love you so much, Talib.

You do selfless work.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so I asked you to do the show with me and you was like, I'm going to do it.

But if we do it, I want to make sure that we give flowers to Billy Higgins and pay tribute to people who came before us, who even did the work for us to even be able to get on these stages and get paid and have these lifestyles that come from making this music because of people like Billy Higgins and people like Bobby Hutchinson.

And so you were very intentional about when I asked you to do the show, you was like, okay, let's get on the phone first.

Okay.

Okay, so I gave you Bobby Hutcherson, right? Then you have Billy Higgins.

You got John McLaughlin.

Pierre Michelot.

And in jazz, we often talk about, uh, so Dexter is the saxophonist and band leader, but the rhythm section is the band supporting him.

So there's Sonny Clark on the piano, Billy Higgins on the drums.

But the bass player on the record and on many Blue Note records in the '60s is a Washington, DC bassist by the name of Butch Warren And I had the opportunity to be around Butch and play with him quite a bit before he passed away, and he was just a wonderful, wonderful human being and spirit, and one of the greatest bass players.

And when you look at this whole band, Sonny Clark, Butch Warren, and Billy Higgins, it's really like a dream rhythm section, because all of them are just the best at their instruments.

Stop Talking.

This wonderful track by Dexter Gordon with a bass intro by Butch Warren.

Those lines are so long that he's playing, but it just really feels effortless.

And, and that's what I, I think I enjoyed the most, and because of the way you introduced it, Elijah, I was listening to the rhythm section trying to really hone in on that, and I just, I couldn't pull away from what he was doing.

That's a cut dedicated to the founder of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.

And the personnel on that cut, Lee Morgan trumpet, Wayne Shorter tenor sax, Grant Green, St. Louis' own on guitar, Herbie Hancock piano, Reggie Workman bass, Billy Higgins on drums.

Now, Lee Morgan was a member of the finishing school of jazz, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Right now, we're going to give you music from two jazz legends.

This is Lee Morgan's Cornbread from 1965.

And this drummer I'm not familiar with as much, which is Billy Higgins.

Billy Higgins is like, I think he's from LA.

But he was kind of like an LA native.

And I think a lot of people in Crenshaw, they Billy was like a big, big influencer for them because he was the person that founded the world stage.

He was helping everybody in the community.

But something that makes him really special, I also like to talk about it.

A couple of reasons for me, especially on this record, is that you kind of get a lot of different styles or a lot of different ways of playing jazz music because he has you know you have your straight ahead like you know like your medium swing you have your brushes um you kind of have there's a track on there called siora where it's kind of like a bossa nova bossa nova samba you kind of thing but what billy higgins is known for is is his boogaloo You know, all these drummers were known for their swing pattern, and Billy was known for his swing pattern being very straight.

Condole, sorry.

Okay, I should know that better, huh? Bud Shank to Charles Lloyd, Billy Higgins, Gary Britton to the Moncastra.

Moncastra with John Beasley, Peter Erskine, Bob Mincer, Jeff Hamilton, and John Clayton.

Good Lord.

Sure enough.

After Sonny and St. Thomas, we heard I could write a book featuring Sonny Rollins alongside Don Cherry on cornet, Harry Grimes on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

Then I rounded things out with a live performance by Sonny and the band at the 1980 Umea Jazz Festival in Sweden with his original titled Blossom.

The love and joy Sonny Rollins gifted the world is immense.