Charles Lloyd and Billy Higgins - Supreme Love Dance

Cedar Walton Quartet - Naima (1976)

Line-up:
Cedar Walton - piano
George Coleman - tenor sax
Sam Jones - bass
Billy Higgins - drums.

Andrew Hill - Dance with Death (1968)

Andrew Hill's Dance of Death, recorded in 1968 with a stellar band, was not issued until 1980. In the late 1960s, Blue Note was no longer the most adventurous of jazz labels. While certain titles managed to scrape through -- Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music did but only because Francis Wollf personally financed it -- many didn't. The label was firmly in the soul-jazz groove by then, and Hill's music, always on the edge, was deemed too outside for the label's roster. Musically, this is Hill at his most visionary. From hard- and post bop frames come modal and tonal inquiries of staggering complexity. Accompanied by trumpeter Charles Tolliver, saxophonist Joe Farrell, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Victor Sproles, Hill engages, seemingly, all of his muses at once. Check out the sinister modal blues that is "Fish 'N' Rice" with its loping Eastern-tinged blues and loping horn lines around Hill's knotty fills in the head and choruses. In "Partitions" the steaming head is so rigorously tangled it's only the counterpoint of Hill's piano that makes an exit possible, with deep blues underpinnings and strident swinging soul. The title cut dances Afro-Cuban in the head, but Hill's piano is in a minor modal groove, with Higgins playing a textural, syncopated four-four as Sproles' punches on the two and four as the solos begin winding through the modes, bringing back the blues on tags. Dance of Death is a phenomenal record, one that wears its adventure and authority well.

By Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Post-Bop
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - Yellow Violet (05:30)
02 - Partitions (05:49)
03 - Fish 'n Rice (07:29)
04 - Dance with Death (06:37)
05 - Love Nocturne (06:41)
06 - Black Sabbath (06:21)
07 - Dance with Death [alternate take] (07:12)

Line-up:
Andrew Hill - piano
Charles Tolliver - trumpet
Joe Farrell - soprano saxophone (track 1), tenor saxophone (tracks 2-7)
Victor Sproles - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

Cedar Walton - Eastern Rebellion (1975)

This CD reissue brings back a classic set featuring four giants of the modern mainstream: pianist/leader Cedar Walton, tenor-saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Billy Higgins. All five performances are noteworthy, particularly a definitive version of Walton's most famous composition "Bolivia," Coleman's tricky "5/4 Thing" and Jones's boppish "Bittersweet." The veteran musicians all sound quite inspired on this advanced straightahead set. A gem.

by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Bolivia (10:10)
02 - Naima (08:38)
03 - 5/4 Thing (07:55)
04 - Bittersweet (06:54)
05 - Mode For Joe (07:41)

Line-up:
Cedar Walton - piano
George Coleman - tenor sax
Sam Jones - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

Lee Morgan - Cornbread (1965)

This session (reissued on CD by Blue Note) is best known for introducing Lee Morgan's beautiful ballad "Ceora," but actually all five selections (which include Morgan's "Cornbread," "Our Man Higgins," "Most Like Lee," and the standard "Ill Wind") are quite memorable. The trumpeter/leader performs with a perfectly complementary group of open-minded and talented hard bop stylists (altoist Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley on tenor, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Larry Ridley, and drummer Billy Higgins) and creates a Blue Note classic that is heartily recommended.

by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop
Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Cornbread (09:00)
02 - Our Man Higgins (08:50)
03 - Ceora (06:20)
04 - Ill Wind (07:55)
05 - Most Like Lee (06:45)

Line-up:
Lee Morgan – Trumpet
Herbie Hancock – Piano
Billy Higgins – Drums
Jackie McLean – Alto sax
Hank Mobley – Tenor sax
Larry Ridley – Bass

Lee Morgan - Search for the New Land (1964)

This set (the CD reissue is a duplicate of the original LP) is one of the finest Lee Morgan records. The great trumpeter contributes five challenging compositions ("Search for the New Land," "The Joker," "Mr. Kenyatta," "Melancholee," and "Morgan the Pirate") that deserve to be revived. Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarist Grant Green, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Billy Higgins are all in particularly creative form on the fresh material, and they stretch the boundaries of hard bop (the modern mainstream jazz of the period). The result is a consistently stimulating set that rewards repeated listenings.

by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Search for the New Land (15:45)
02 - The Joker (05:04)
03 - Mr. Kenyatta (08:43)
04 - Melancholee (06:14)
05 - Morgan the Pirate (06:31)

Line-up:
Lee Morgan – trumpet
Grant Green – guitar
Herbie Hancock – piano
Billy Higgins – drums
Wayne Shorter – tenor sax
Reggie Workman – bass

Dexter Gordon - Go (1962)

From the first moments when Dexter Gordon sails into the opening song full of brightness and confidence, it is obvious that Go! is going to be one of those albums where everything just seems to come together magically. A stellar quartet including the stylish pianist Sonny Clark, the agile drummer Billy Higgins, and the solid yet flexible bassist Butch Warren are absolutely crucial in making this album work, but it is still Gordon who shines. Whether he is dropping quotes into "Three O'Clock in the Morning" or running around with spritely bop phrases in "Cheese Cake," the album pops and crackles with energy and exuberance. Beautiful ballads like "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" metamorphosize that energy into emotion and passion, but you can still see it there nonetheless. Gordon had many high points in his five decade-long career, but this is certainly the peak of it all.

by Stacia Proefrock in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Cheese Cake (6:33)
02 - Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (5:23)
03 - Second Balcony Jump (7:05)
04 - Love for Sale (7:40)
05 - Where Are You (5:21)
06 - Three O'Clock in the Morning (5:40)

Line-up:
Dexter Gordon — tenor saxophone
Sonny Clark — piano
Butch Warren — bass
Billy Higgins — drums

Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)

Ornette Coleman's Atlantic debut, The Shape of Jazz to Come, was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-garde jazz, profoundly steering its future course and throwing down a gauntlet that some still haven't come to grips with. The record shattered traditional concepts of harmony in jazz, getting rid of not only the piano player but the whole idea of concretely outlined chord changes. The pieces here follow almost no predetermined harmonic structure, which allows Coleman and partner Don Cherry an unprecedented freedom to take the melodies of their solo lines wherever they felt like going in the moment, regardless of what the piece's tonal center had seemed to be. Plus, this was the first time Coleman recorded with a rhythm section -- bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins -- that was loose and open-eared enough to follow his already controversial conception. Coleman's ideals of freedom in jazz made him a feared radical in some quarters; there was much carping about his music flying off in all directions, with little direct relation to the original theme statements. If only those critics could have known how far out things would get in just a few short years; in hindsight, it's hard to see just what the fuss was about, since this is an accessible, frequently swinging record. It's true that Coleman's piercing, wailing alto squeals and vocalized effects weren't much beholden to conventional technique, and that his themes often followed unpredictable courses, and that the group's improvisations were very free-associative. But at this point, Coleman's desire for freedom was directly related to his sense of melody -- which was free-flowing, yes, but still very melodic. Of the individual pieces, the haunting "Lonely Woman" is a stone-cold classic, and "Congeniality" and "Peace" aren't far behind. Any understanding of jazz's avant-garde should begin here.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free-Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Lonely Woman (05:01)
02 - Eventually (04:22)
03 - Peace (09:02)
04 - Focus on Sanity (06:50)
05 - Congeniality (06:47)
06 - Chronology (06:04)

Line-up:
Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
Don Cherry – cornet
Charlie Haden – double bass
Billy Higgins – drums

Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz: A Colective Improvisation (1960)

The original cover of "Free Jazz" (1960) featured a reproduction of one of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings, "White Light." The reference is an apt one--like Pollock, Ornette has always had faith that out of chaos, intuition and freedom, beauty will emerge. For the recording session of "Free Jazz," Ornette brought with him two quartets (each with bass drums, and two horns) and had them play simultaneously, giving them only a few very vague directions.
What emerged was, like a Pollock painting, a thing of primal beauty and power, formally strange and surprisingly dance-like. It is also (like a Pollock) better experienced than described.
Each quartet occupies their own stereo channel (Ornette, Don Cherry, Scott LaFaro and Billy Higgins are on the left channel; and Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell are on the right). The music that comes out of the speakers is much more than an experiment; it's also much more than just the collective sound of all these wonderful musicians. It's an ecstatic work that has been an inspiration to creative musicians for over 40 years, and it will continue to be for many years to come.

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free-Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Free Jazz (37:10)
02 - First Take (17:02)

Line-up:
Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
Don Cherry – pocket trumpet
Scott LaFaro – bass
Billy Higgins – drums
Eric Dolphy – bass clarinet
Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
Charlie Haden – bass
Ed Blackwell – drums