Born on February 21, 1932, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Eddie Higgins was a jazz pianist, composer, and orchestrator. He began piano studies with his mom and eventually moved to Evanston, Illinois to attend the Northwestern University School of Music. He began his professional career in nearby Chicago where he performed at the city’s most prestigious venues including the London House, where he performed with jazz legends such as Coleman Hawkins, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, Oscar Peterson, and George Shearing. Eddie Higgins formed a trio and released his debut album, The Ed Higgins Trio, in 1957. His breakthrough came with self-titled album in 1961 followed by Soulero (1965), The Piano of Eddie Higgins (1966) and Music from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1967). He also spent a lot of time as a sideman, playing on many recording sessions throughout the 1960s. Eddie Higgins moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1970, playing the local jazz circuit. He released two albums at the end of the 1970s: My Time of Day and Dream Dancing. With little work in the States, Eddie Higgins spent a good portion of the 1980s performing and recording in Europe and then focused on East Asia in the 1990s. In 2009, he began making plans to tour Japan and South Korea but the dates were cancelled when he fell ill. Eddie Higgines died on August 31, 2009 at the age of 77.
