Pianist and composer, is an up-and-coming young musician known for creative, energetic, and swinging solos full of joy, adventure, and spontaneity, paying love and respect to masters such as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Kenny Kirkland, while contributing his personal experience to the jazz tradition. Higgins completed a B.M. in Jazz Performance at UNC-Wilmington, and an M.M. at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where he played in and composed for the NIU Liberace Jazztet and NIU Jazz Ensemble led by Ronald Carter. Higgins has opened for Dave Holland, Fourplay, Joe Lovano, Talib Kweli, Ryan Cohen, and Stefon Harris and Blackout.
Higgins is based out of NYC, yet performs worldwide, recently completing successful 8-week US Ambassador tours of the Middle East and Russia with Alvin Atkinson & the Sound Merchants. He has played in many NYC clubs such as The Jazz Standard, Smoke, Dizzy’s & The Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lenox Lounge, Shanghai Jazz, St. Nick\'s Pub, Minton\'s Playhouse. Sean was a member of the Winard Harper Sextet for 2 years and has shared the stage with Charles McPherson, Stephanie Nakasian, Al Maniscalco, Wycliffe Gordon, Fareed Haque, Bobby Watson, Terell Stafford, John Clayton, Jeff Clayton, Russell Malone, and many others. Jazz Festival performances include 2004 Iowa City, 2004 Lima Peru, 2005 Elmhurst, 2006 Vail, 2007 Tri-C, 2007 Columbus Jazz & Ribs, 2008 Cape May, 2008 Usadba-Moscow, 2008 Chelyabinsk. 2008 has already brought Sean to China, Russia, and the USA-where he is working on an upcoming 2nd album release. Sean Higgins\' debut trio album, \"The New Thought” feat. (Iajhi Hampden-drums, Josh Ramos-bass), is available on the website: www.seanhiggins.net
Read more...