Billy Higgins grew up in the black neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles, and began his musical career playing rhythm'n'blues (Jimmy Witherspoon) and rock and roll with local musicians. He also played with the solid saxophonist Ike Quebec. In 1953, he joined the Jazz Messiahs band co-directed by Don Cherry and James Clay, in which Dexter Gordon also played (1953-1955). After playing and recording with Red Mitchell (1957), Billy Higgins met Ornette Coleman, the saxophonist who plays on a plastic instrument. In 1958, when Ornette Coleman set up his first ever free jazz quartet, Higgins was part of the adventure ("Something Else", 1958, "Change Of The Century", 1959). He took part in concerts at New York's Five Spot in 1959. Caught up in an altercation with the police, Higgins had his work card revoked - meaning he could no longer play in New York clubs. He reunited with Thelonious Monk, with whom he moved to San Francisco (1960). He then became a freelance musician, accompanying all kinds of musicians on a permanent basis, including Steve Lacy (1961), Sonny Clark (1961), Donald Byrd (1961), John Coltrane (1962), Sonny Rollins (1963), with whom he toured France, Lee Morgan (1963) and Mal Waldron (1973). For ten years or so, Higgins played regularly with Cedar Walton (1975-1985), and formed a quartet with him and George Coleman (Eastern Rebellion, 1979). Not content with all this experience, in the early '80s he played with musicians from the new wave of jazz-rock and the
