Dave O'Higgins

Oscar Wilde once said; ‘imitation is the highest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness’. Jazz musicians have always known this and have always done their best to stand on the shoulders of giants. While these three musicians are in no way mediocre they will happily afford every flattery to the great Thelonious Monk.

Here are three friends getting together to pay homage to one of the greatest Jazz composers of the 20th century, Thelonious Monk.

With a wealth of experience and artistry at their finger tips Dave O’Higgins, Luke Fowler and Billy Pod have set out to pay their respects to the works of Thelonious Monk and to use his compositions to express themselves and display their veracious talents.

Saxophonist Dave O’Higgins & guitarist Rob Luft now present their 2nd co-led recording three years after “O’Higgins & Luft Play Monk & Trane”. Where the first album clearly did what it says on the tin, “Pluto”, as the title suggests, comes from another place. Seven of the nine songs are originals, and the remaining two are Monk & Trane hits from the 40-plus date tour in 2019 that evolved on the road.

The sonority has changed a little, too, with the Hammond organ of before replaced with piano and bass. This is straight-ahead modern jazz in the African-American tradition, clearly coming from the Monk and Trane lineage, but not bound to emulating it. You will hear Luft easily morphing Wes Montgomery with Bill Frisell, his own trademark soundscapes and worldly influences, while O’Higgins’ emotive melodies evoke Dexter, Trane, Joe Henderson and Brecker, with a melodic logic of his own. read more…

“The debut album, ‘His ‘n’ Hers’, was created days before the first lockdown, and the EP is a bookend, hence the aptness of ‘Omicron’. We were always working on expanding our repertoire and wrote the song ‘Calypso Collapso’ in this period. ‘Mister Magic’ was a playful suggestion that just seemed to work out. We can’t wait to get out on the road with this stuff!”

The recording was made with a “new meets old” aesthetic: inspired by the 50s and 60s Rudy Van Gelder recordings in terms of transparency and natural fidelity, but also with a nod to contemporary sonic developments. The O’Higgins have been on a mission for over 10 years to create a jazz friendly, ribbon mics, spill-and-all recording environment and JVG Studio gets better all the time.

That’s The Way To Live

When four musicians come together with a shared conception of musical values, the result is bigger than the sum of its parts. When we perform or record, the trust we have in each other allows a great deal of freedom. In fact, it's very liberating as a player to understand your role – not to feel confined by musical responsibilities, but to acknowledge and use them as the foundation for creation… read more

Dave O’Higgins - tenor sax
Graham Harvey - piano
Jeremy Brown - bass
Josh Morrison - drums

'His 'n' Hers’

'His 'n' Hers' affectionately pits Mr and Mrs O’Higgins against each other as in the movie, Mr & Mrs Smith... In reality, this is a swinging “tough tenors” band in the good humoured tradition of the great Johnny Griffin - Eddie Lockjaw Davis group, who made nine albums together between 1960 and 1962. But what Griffin and Davis did together was not a competition, however apparently combative. It was collaboration, mutual inspiration, and special because of both the similarity and contrast of the two protagonists… read more

Judith O’Higgins (tenor saxophone) & Dave O’Higgins (tenor saxophone)
Graham Harvey - piano
Jeremy Brown - bass
Josh Morrison - drums

O'Higgins & Luft Play Monk & Trane

O'Higgins & Luft Play Monk & Trane all started when Luft got in touch with O'Higgins to make up a quartet. The interaction, shared sensibilities and deeply held mutual respect made this collaboration an instant success. 

Dave O'Higgins explains, "Rob called me for some 'blowing' gigs last year. It wasn't difficult to find a common repertoire, and a predilection for Monk and Trane tunes was apparent… read more

Dave O'Higgins - tenor saxophone 
Rob Luft - guitar 
Scott Flanigan - organ 
Rod Youngs - drums

Tenors of Our Time

Led by UK saxophonist, Dave O’Higgins, the idea came about when Dave performed at the 2018 Rochester Jazz Festival in New York with Italian drummer, Luca Santaniello. Doing a 2-tenor combo with the wonderful Max Ionata seemed like a perfect UK-Italian collaboration, and it was a sheer pleasure from the first note. The quartet was made up with UK virtuoso jazz organist, Ross Stanley. The session was 'live in the studio' and swinging hard: 5 originals by Dave, 2 by Max, a tricky blues theme by James Williams, a Dizzy Gillespie rhythm changes and an old Italian pop song!

Max Ionata - tenor sax 
Dave O’Higgins - tenor sax 
Ross Stanley - organ 
Luca Santaniello - drums

It's always 9.30 in Zog

It’s always 9.30 in Zog is O’Higgins’ nineteenth album as leader and features eight original compositions, legendary South African Bheki Mseleku’s ‘Timelessness’, ‘Brixton’ written specially for O’Higgins by Brazilian accordion virtuoso, Chico Chagas, and two standards.

“The title track is a blues fusing influences of Jerry Bergonzi and Walt Weiskopf (the triad pairs in the intro melody), the avant garde (the rising chaos ending the intro), the extreme dynamics of Art Blakey, and hard bop,” says O’Higgins. “What does the album title It’s Always 9:30 in Zog mean? Here are 2 fanciful answers: 1. It’s an allegorical title that refers to an alien’s perception of the daft carry on that is human life; 2. Refers to those moments you feel as if you come from another place. Zog is a planet located in a black hole in the space time continuum where everyone breathes water and it's always 9:30…” read more

Dave O'Higgins - saxophone 
Geoff Gascoyne - bass 
Graham Harvey - piano 
Sebastiaan de Krom - drums