“O’Higgins plays with quite exceptional fluency and his fund of ideas never runs out.”
The Observer
Dave O’Higgins now has 26 albums as leader to his credit. His sax sound is very personal and recognisable, with a clear sense of melodic development and adventure. A popular performer with the public, with an excellent sense of pacing and presentation, he has a wide palette from Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson through to Stanley Turrentine and Michael Brecker. He has relentlessly pursued artistic exploration and development with a deep respect for the tradition of the music. His latest project is His’n’Hers, a tough tenors combo and modern homage to Johnny Griffin & Eddie Lockjaw Davis, co-led with his wife, Judith O’Higgins.
The latest CD release by His’n’Hers, Liquorice Allsorts, is now released on Dave’s own label, JvG Music. It features tunes by Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, George Coleman & originals by the leaders. They are joined by long-time collaborators Graham Harvey, Jeremy Brown & Josh Morrison.
Dave is a highly regarded educator, and having recently relinquished regular work in higher education to have more time for other interests, still teaches at Jazz School UK in Wellingborough, sees private students, and regularly leads workshops.
He also runs a small specialist jazz recording studio (JVG), in search of the optimum way of recording jazz musicians through a combination of old techniques (á la Rudy Van Gelder) and newer innovations.
Dave has worked with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Joey Calderazzo, Joe Locke, Dave Kikowski, Eric Alexander, Grant Stewart, Max Ionata, Phil Dwyer, Adam Nussbaum, Joe Lovano, Phil Woods, Jimmy Smith, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Kurt Elling, Wayne Shorter, Eddie Gomez, Billy Childs, Abdullah Ibrahim, Chico Chagas and Stephane Grappelli. He also co-wrote and recorded the last 2 Matt Bianco album, “Gravity” and “Masquerader”. While his jazz career was in its early stages, Dave cut his teeth as a sideman with Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra.
Other regular bands over the years include:
Darius Brubeck Quartet
Brubecks Play Brubeck
Sean Fyfe Quartet
John Dankworth and Cleo Laine
Jim Mullen
Martin Taylor’s Spirit of Django
Jamie Cullum
Kyle Eastwood
BBC Big Band
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra
Nominated Best Tenor Sax 2018 British Jazz Awards
Dave O’Higgins / Rob Luft Quartet nominated Best Band 2020 Parliamentary Jazz Awards
“A stunning player in the neo-bop vein, with an apparently effortless flow of coherent ideas, beautiful time and a highly developed harmonic sense.”
JAZZ GUIDE
“His professional presentation was an object lesson to the amateurishness of local players. His musicianship seemed boundless. Like his friend Martin Taylor did last year to our guitarists, Dave O’Higgins did to our sax players – gave them new and exciting challenges. And gave us mere listeners an exceptional night.”
ADELAIDE ADVERTISER, AUSTRALIA
“O’Higgins plays with quite exceptional fluency and his fund of ideas never runs out.”
THE OBSERVER
“The group, switching between trio, quartet and quintet formats, make this sometimes difficult music hugely entertaining; it's always questioning, exciting but never pretentious or dull.” JAZZWISE on 2024 CD launch for Monkin’ Around CD “4 in 1”