Wardell Gray

Wardell Gray (1921–1955) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.

Today often overlooked, Gray's playing displays a unique style, an unmatched tone and a strong presence.
Wardell Gray was born in Oklahoma City, the youngest of four children. His early childhood years were spent in Oklahoma, before moving with his family to Detroit, Michigan in 1929.
In early 1935, Gray began attending Northeastern High School, and then transferred to Cass Technical High School, which is noted for having Donald Byrd, Lucky Thompson and Al McKibbon as alumni. He left in 1936, before graduating. Advised by his brother-in-law Junior Warren, as a teenager he started on the clarinet, but after hearing Lester Young on record with Count Basie, he was inspired to switch to the tenor saxophone.

Gray's first musical job was in Isaac Goodwin's small band, a part-time outfit that played local dances. When auditioning for another job, he was heard by Dorothy Patton, a young pianist who was forming a band in the Fraternal Club in Flint, Michigan, and she hired him. After a very happy year there, he moved to Jimmy Raschel's band (Raschel had recorded a few sides earlier in the 1930s but did not do so again) and then on to the Benny Carew band in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was at around this time that he met Jeanne Goings; together they had a daughter, Anita, who was born in January 1941.
Gray still has family in Michigan. Anita birthed a son in 1959. Anita's son fathered a son as well by the name of Daren M. McClelland II. Daren McClelland II currently teaches 10th grade English at Jackson High School.

Just up the road from the Congo Club was the Three Sixes; in the chorus line was Jeri Walker, a young dancer from New Jersey. Gray and Jeanne were splitting up, and he and Jeri were soon together. Jeri knew Earl Hines, and when the Hines band came through Detroit in late 1943, she persuaded Earl to hire Wardell - on alto, since there was no tenor vacancy at the time.
This was a big break for the 21 year-old, as the Earl Hines Orchestra was not only nationally-known, but it had nurtured the careers of some of the emerging bebop musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Although most of them had left by the time Gray joined, playing with the Hines band was still a marvellously lively and stimulating experience for the young tenor player.

They toured all over the country, and it was when they were in California that Gray met Dorothy Duvall: they were immediately attracted to each other. Dorothy was married but, although the marriage was on the point of collapse, an unfortunate intervention by a 'friend' led Gray to believe that this was not so, and he returned to Jeri; they were married in Chicago in September 1945.
Wardell spent approximately three years with Hines, and matured rapidly during this time. He soon became a featured soloist, and the band's recordings show a relaxed, fluent stylist very much in the Lester Young mold. While some of the live Jubilee sessions have been reissued on CD , the studio recordings from 1945-46 are still available only on LP.

He left Hines late in 1946, settling in Los Angeles; soon after arriving there, he recorded the first session under his own name. This was a quartet session for Eddie Laguna's Sunset label, and on it Wardell had strong support from Dodo Marmarosa on piano. The date produced some excellent sides, notably "Easy Swing" and "The Man I Love"; there is a reissue of the whole session, including alternate takes , but a selection is available on .
In Los Angeles, Wardell worked in a number of bands including Benny Carter, the blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, and the small group that supported singer Billy Eckstine on a tour of the West Coast. But the real focus in LA at this time was in the clubs along Central Avenue, which was still thriving after the boom years brought about by the huge injection of wartime defence spending. Here Wardell found his element, playing in the mainly after-hours sessions in clubs like Jack's Basket Room, the Down Beat, Lovejoy's and the Club Alabam, and his early success in these sessions led Ross Russell to include him in a studio session he was organising for his Dial label. The session was designed as a showcase for Charlie Parker, but Wardell acquitted himself superbly, showing no sign at all of being over-awed by Parker's presence .

It was in the Central Avenue clubs that Wardell held his tenor battles with Dexter Gordon. These two were ideally matched: Wardell's light sound and swift delivery were more than a match for Dexter's big, blustering sound, and their tenor jousts became a kind of symbol for the Central Avenue scene. Gordon later recalled: "There'd be a lot of cats on the stand but by the end of the session it would wind up with Wardell and myself... His playing was very fluid, very clean... He had a lot of drive and a profusion of ideas". Their fame began to spread, and Ross Russell managed to get them to simulate one of their battles on "The Chase" (4), which became Wardell's first nationally-known recording and has been assessed as "one of the most exciting musical contests in the history of jazz".

The success of "The Chase" was the break that Wardell needed, and he became increasingly prominent in public sessions in and around LA, including the "Just Jazz" series of jam sessions organised by the disc jockey Gene Norman. There were concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and the Shrine Auditorium and other venues . The session which included "Just You, Just Me" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" has some of Wardell's best playing, but the only CD version of this is crudely abbreviated and cannot be recommended. (There have since been issued several unedited versions of these performances).
Apart from a spell with a little band led by Al Killian (some Jubilee recordings by this group  show Wardell in fine form) Wardell was still working mainly in one-off sessions during 1947. However, at a concert around the turn of that year which also featured Benny Goodman, Wardell so impressed the clarinettist that Goodman hired him for a small group which he was just setting up as part of his flirtation with bebop. Goodman had previously been highly critical of bop playing but, speaking of Wardell to Metronome, he said that "if he's bop, that's great. He's wonderful!"
Goodman's new group included the young Swedish clarinettist Ake "Stan" Hasselgard and, initially, Teddy Wilson, and it opened at Frank Palumbo's Click Club in Philadelphia in May 1948. Fortunately, enthusiasts recorded the nightly broadcasts from the club, some of the best of which have been released on CD , and they contain some superbly relaxed, fluent tenor work from Wardell. There is little sign of bop in the group's playing, the only noticeable influence being in some of Wardell's phrasing and in aspects of Mary Lou Williams' arrangements for the band.

The group was not, however, a financial success and Goodman eventually broke it up, but by now Wardell was fully established on the East Coast as an up and coming musician. For a while in late 1948/early 1949 he worked with the Count Basie Orchestra, whilst also managing to record with Tadd Dameron  and, in excellent quartet and quintet sessions, with Al Haig . The quartet session included "Twisted", one of Wardell's best-known recordings and which was used as the basis for a best-selling vocalese version by Annie Ross.
Wardell left Basie in 1949 to return to Benny Goodman. However, life in the Goodman band became increasingly uncongenial for him. In addition, his marriage to Jeri was breaking up. Goodman was not an easy employer at the best of times and this, combined with the constant travelling, made Wardell increasingly unhappy: recordings of the band, both studio sessions  and live airshots , feature work by Wardell that is below his own best standards. (That it is the Goodman surroundings that was the problem, rather than any fall-off) in Wardell's ability, is shown in a session recorded with local musicians in Detroit ; Wardell's work on this session is exemplary.

On leaving Goodman, Wardell rejoined Count Basie. Basie had bowed to economic pressures and broken up his big band, forming a septet which included Clark Terry and Buddy DeFranco; Wardell joined them in, probably, July 1950. This setting was a much happier one for him and the group enjoyed some success; airshots from the time show a very relaxed, swinging band with no weak links .
It was during this good time from a musical point of view, that Wardell's personal life also became happier. He was finally divorced from Jeri and was at last free to marry Dorothy and, together with Dorothy's daughter, Paula, they set up in a little house in Los Angeles.
The only drawback to working with Basie (who had by now enlarged his group again to big band size) was the constant travelling, and Wardell eventually decided to leave so that he could enjoy more home life. The decision was entirely understandable, though the Basie rhythm section was ideally suited to Wardell's brand of swing and, from a musical point of view, enthusiasts for his playing may regret his decision. And an unexpected side-effect was that, because work in the LA area was short (for black musicians, anyway) Wardell still had to travel frequently in search of jobs. Nevertheless, life at home was good, and one of the few interviews that he ever gave (to the British Melody Maker) showed that he was very happy.
In 1950, Gray played a live concert at the San Francisco Veteran's Memorial Hall as a guest with Gerald Wilson's band. Remarkably captured in high fidelity stereo (the only such example in his discography), this recording was released for the first time in 2006 . Gray can be heard in fine form during featured solo spots with small combo backup on "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "Indiana" and also with Wilson's big band on the blues "Hollywood Freeway" where Gray trades exciting choruses with Zoot Sims and Stan Getz.
At around this time his recording sessions started becoming fewer—though a live session with Dexter Gordon, recreating the excitements of Central Avenue, and a studio session with Art Farmer and Hampton Hawes (both on 18) have fine examples of Wardell's playing.
However, there are increasing signs of a lack of engagement in Wardell's work around 1951/52, notably in a further live session with Dexter Gordon from February 1952  and it seems that he may have been becoming disillusioned with the music business. That he was still capable of playing superbly is shown by his work on a live jam session at The Haig , but such sessions were by now very sparse, and more typical work from this period was recorded on a session with Teddy Charles .

Also at around this time, he seems, tragically, to have become involved in the drug scene. How this could have happened, given his maturity and his understanding of the consequences, is still a mystery; nevertheless, friends reported that it was beginning to take its toll. His playing was now less fluent, and a studio session in January 1955 , which was to be his last, shows strong but (by his own standards) rather unsubtle playing.
He was still working regularly, though, and when Benny Carter was engaged in May 1955 to provide the band at the opening the Moulin Rouge Hotel, he called on Wardell. He attended rehearsals but, when the club opened on 25 May, Wardell was absent. The next day he was found on a stretch of desert on the outskirts of Las Vegas dead with a broken neck.
Although, by most accounts, there was a poor examination of circumstances, Gray's demise was ruled an accidental death. Foul play was suspected by some, especially given Gray's possible association with reputed mob boss Meyer Lansky.



Wardell Gray (1921-1955) fue un saxofonista tenor estadounidense de jazz, vinculado estilísticamente al bebop.
Tocó en bandas lideradas por Earl Hines y Tadd Dameron, entre otros y grabó con Charlie Parker y Count Basie.

Wardell Gray nació en Oklahoma City, el más pequeños de cuatro niños. Sus primeros años de infancia los pasó en Oklahoma, de donde se trasladó con su familia a Detroit en 1929.
A comienzos de 1935, Wardell se matriculó en el instituto de Northeastern, y luego en el Cass Technical High School, que es famoso por haber tenido entre sus alumnos a Donald Byrd, Lucky Thompson y Al McKibbon. Wardell lo dejó en 1936, antes de graduarse. Aunque se había interesado en el clarinete, animado por su cuñado Junior Warren y tras haber oído a Lester Young en una grabación con Count Basie, Wardell decidió cambiarse al saxo tenor.
El primer trabajo musical de Gray fue en la pequeña orquesta de Isaac Goodwin, un grupo a tiempo parcial que tocaba en salones de baile. Mientras estaba siendo probado para otro trabajo, Wardell fue escuchado por Dorothy Patton, una joven pianista que estaba formando una orquesta en el Fraternal Club de Flint (Míchigan), y lo contrató. Tras un muy feliz año con ella, se cambió a la orquesta de Jimmy Raschel (Raschel había grabado unas cuantas caras a comienzos de los años treinta pero no lo había vuelto a hacer) y luego con la orquesta de Benny Carew en Grand Rapids, Michigan. Fue en esta época más o menos cuando conoció a Jeanne Goings; juntos tuvieron una hija, Anita, que nació en enero de 1941.

El siguiente paso de Wardell lo llevó a Detroit. En 1940, Stack Walton cedió el liderazgo de la orquesta titular de Congo Club a Johnny Allen, y Wardell se hizo cargo del saxo tenor. El Congo Club, en la principal zona de Detroit dedicada al entrenimiento para negros, fue un popular club nocturno con una orquesta de reconocido prestigio que tuvo entre sus miembros a músicos como Howard McGhee y Teddy Edwards.
Murió en circunstancias extrañas a la edad de 34 años.

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor (Round Midnight, Warner Bros, 1986). He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone. His studio and live performance career were both extensive and multifaceted, spanning over 50 years in recorded jazz history.

Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm), and so consequently he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant." He played a Conn 10M 'Ladyface' tenor  until it was stolen in a Paris airport in 1961. He then switched over to a Selmer Mark VI. His saxophone was fitted with an Otto Link metal mouthpiece, which can be seen in various photos. Gordon died on April 25, 1990 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gordon was born and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton among his patients. He played clarinet from the age of 13, before switching to saxophone (initially alto, then tenor) at 15. While still at school, he was playing in bands with such contemporaries as Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette.

Between 1940 and 1943, Gordon was a member of Lionel Hampton's band, playing in a saxophone section alongside Illinois Jacquet and Marshall Royal. In 1943 he made his first recordings under his own name, alongside Nat Cole and Harry Edison. During 1943-44 he featured in the Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson bands, before joining Billy Eckstine.
By 1945, Gordon had left the Eckstine band and was resident in New York, where he was performing and recording with Charlie Parker, as well as recording under his own name. Gordon was a virtuoso particularly famous for his titanic saxophone duels with fellow tenorman Wardell Gray, that were a popular live attraction and that were documented in several albums between 1947 and 1952.

Many would characterize Gordon's sound as being 'large' and spacious and his tendency to play behind the beat is discernible. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane during the 1940s and 1950s. Coltrane's playing, however, during his early period from the mid to late '50s or early '60s influenced Gordon's playing from then onward. Similarities in their styles include their clear, strong, metallic tones, their tendencies to bend up to high notes, and their abilities to single-tongue and still swing. One of Gordon's idiosyncrasies was to recite the lyrics of each ballad before playing it.

Gordon was saxophonist for the L.A. production of the Jack Gelber play The Connection in 1960, replacing Jackie McLean who performed and recorded the Freddie Redd score in New York City. By this time he had begun recording for Blue Note Records a collaboration that was to produce some of his most highly-regarded work on the albums Doin' Alright, Dexter Calling..., Go, and A Swingin' Affair. The first two, his Blue Note debuts, were recorded over three days in May 1961 with Freddie Hubbard, Horace Parlan and others. The last two were recorded in August 1962 just before Gordon left for his extended stay in Europe. On these albums the rhythm section was Blue Note staples Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins.
After that, he spent 15 years in Europe, mostly in Paris and Copenhagen, where he played regularly with fellow expatriate jazzmen such as Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Drew, Horace Parlan and Billy Higgins. Gordon also visited the States occasionally for further recording dates with Blue Note Records. From this period Our Man in Paris, One Flight Up, and Gettin' Around are regarded as among his finest sessions. Our Man in Paris was a Blue Note session recorded in Paris, France in 1963 with a quartet including pianist Bud Powell, drummer Kenny Clarke, and French bassist Pierre Michelot. One Flight Up features an extended solo by Gordon on the track "Tanya" recorded in Paris in 1964 with trumpeter Donald Byrd, while Gettin' Around was recorded during a visit back to the US in May 1965, as was the unreleased album Clubhouse.
Less well-known, but of similar quality, are the albums he recorded during the same period for the Danish label SteepleChase (Something Different99, Bouncin' With Dex, and a few dozen others). They feature American sidemen but also such Europeans as Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu and Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

Gordon found Europe in the 1960s a much easier place to live, saying that he experienced less racism and greater respect for jazz musicians. Furthermore in America he had experienced drug addiction and imprisonment (twice), and must have found the change of location helpful. While in Copenhagen, Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew's trio appeared onscreen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi (1971), for which they composed and performed the score.
From 1965-1973 he switched from Blue Note to Prestige Records but stayed very much on the hard-bop track, while the rest of the jazz-world was getting funky Gordon was making classic bop albums like 1972's Tangerine with Thad Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Hank Jones. Some of the Prestige albums were recorded during visits back to North America while he was still living in Europe, others were made in Europe including live sets from the Montreux Jazz Festival. The American recordings included The Chase a tenor battle with Gene Ammons cut in Chicago in 1970.
Gordon finally returned to the United States for good in 1976. He appeared at the Village Vanguard, NY, for a gig that was dubbed as his 'homecoming;' and was recorded and released under that title. He noted "There was so much love and elation; sometimes it was a little eerie at the Vanguard. After the last set they'd turn on the lights and nobody would move".

After this appearance, Gordon recorded several more albums that proved he was as good if not better than before his years in Europe, and he finally gained appreciation as one of the great jazz tenors. The increased attention that he received because of Columbia Records promotions has been seen as a turning point in jazz because they focused on acoustic jazz rather than the commercial cross-over styles which had been heavily promoted during the first part of the 1970s.
Gordon made several notable film appearances. The first occurred, oddly enough, while he was in prison for possession of heroin. He portrayed an inmate playing in the prison band in Unchained, though the soundtrack was later overdubbed. In 1986, Gordon starred in the movie Round Midnight as 'Dale Turner', an expatriate jazz musician much like himself; the role might even be a thinly veiled biography of him, though Lester Young and Bud Powell were its main inspirations. Gordon received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. In addition, he had a non-speaking role in the film Awakenings, which was released after his death. Between these two roles, Gordon made a guest appearance on the Michael Mann series Crime Story.
Gordon died of kidney failure in Philadelphia, PA on April 25, 1990, at age 67. He was voted musician of the year by Down Beat magazine in 1978 and 1980, and in the latter year was inducted into Down Beat's Jazz Hall of Fame.



Dexter Gordon (Los Ángeles, 27 de febrero de 1923 - Filadelfia, 25 de abril de 1990), saxofonista (tenor) estadounidense de jazz, estilista del bop y del hard bop.

Su primera colaboración importante fue con Lionel Hampton (1940-1943) aunque la presencia de Illinois Jacquet le impidió lucirse en los solos. En 1943, consiguió destacar en una grabación con Nat King Cole. Unas breves colaboraciones con Lee Young, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra y la big band de Louis Armstrong precedieron a su traslado a Nueva York en diciembre de 1944 y a su incorporación a la orquesta de Billy Eckstine, participando con Gene Ammons en la grabación de Eckstine de "Blowin' the Blues Away". Gordon grabó con Dizzy Gillespie ("Blue 'N' Boogie") y como líder para Savoy antes de regresar a Los Ángeles en el verano de 1946. Se convirtió allí en uno de los principales atractivos de la escena de Central Avenue, trabajando con Wardell Gray y Teddy Edwards en muchas batallas legendarias entre tenores.
Desde 1952, sus problemas con las drogas le llevaron a una carrera irregular durante el resto de la década (grabando dos discos en 1955). Hacia 1960, se recuperó e inició una serie de grabaciones para Blue Note. En 1962, en pleno éxito, se marchó a Europa en donde se establecería hasta 1976, y allí realizaría algunas de las mejores grabaciones de su carrera para SteepleChase.

Gordon regresó esporádicamente a EE. UU., grabando en 1965, 1969-1970 y 1972, y aunque en esas ocasiones se percibió un olvido por parte de sus compatriotas, su regreso en 1976 constituyó un acontecimiento mediático que repercutió en un inusitado interés por su biografía, que empezó a tener tintes legendarios. Gordon firmó con Columbia y se convirtió en una figura popular hasta que su salud le obligó a casi retirarse a comienzos de los ochenta. Regresó de nuevo para participar en la película 'Round Midnight (1986, Bertrand Tavernier). Fue nominado a un Oscar por su interpretación.
Como nota curiosa hay que decir que Dexter Gordon, amigo de Torben Ulrich (quien dirigía un pequeño club de jazz en Copenhague), es el padrino de Lars Ulrich de Metallica.

Billy Higgins

Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936–May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.

Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958. He then freelanced extensively with hard bop and other post-bop players, including Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Milt Jackson, Jackie McLean, Pat Metheny, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, David Murray, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Mal Waldron, and Cedar Walton. He was one of the house drummers for Blue Note Records and played on dozens of Blue Note albums of the 60's.
On a whole, he played on over 700 recordings, including recordings of rock and funk. He appeared as a jazz drummer in the 2001 movie Southlander.

In 1989, Higgins cofounded a cultural center, The World Stage, in Los Angeles to encourage and promote younger jazz musicians. The center provides workshops in performance and writing, as well as concerts and recordings. Higgins also taught in the jazz studies program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He was divorced from wife Mauricina Altier Higgins and had three sons, William, Joseph, and David, as well as a stepson Jody. His youngest son Benjamin resides in Los Angeles. He also had two daughters, Rickie Wade and Heidi. He died of kidney and liver failure on May 3, 2001 at a hospital in Inglewood, California.

Billy Higgins fue un baterista estadounidense de jazz.

Nacido en Los Ángeles el 11 de octubre de 1936 en una familia de gran tradición musical, Billy Higgins comenzó su carrera profesional como músico de r&b, al lado de estrellas como Bo Diddley, o Jimmy Witherspoon. En 1953 forma junto a su compañero de escuela Don Cherry el grupo Jazz Messiahs, que contaba también con el saxofonista James Clay. 

Tres años más tarde inicia su carrera como músico de estudio, registrando innumerables sesiones junto a Lucky Thompson y Red Mitchell; Higgings conoce a Ornette Coleman, por entonces un desconocido que trabajaba en la elaboración de un lenguaje musical propio, libre de las convenciones armónicas y las estructuras rítmicas y melódicas al uso. Higgins y Cherry comienzan a ensayar con Coleman, y en 1958 la nueva banda debuta como telonera de Paul Bley justo antes de publicar su primer trabajo que, con el título "Something Else!!!" divide radicalmente a crítica y público.

En 1959 Higgins sigue a Coleman, quien instala su grupo como banda residente del famoso Five Spot Café de Nueva York. La llegada del bajista Charlie Haden imprime un nuevo rumbo a la música que la banda, que no pasa desapercibida en la capital del jazz. El álbum de 1959 "The Shape of Jazz" es considerado por la crítica como un disco absolutamente revolucionario dentro del jazz de vanguardia. 

El éxito de Coleman impulsa las carreras de sus colaboradores, y Higgins emerge como un importante y solicitadísimo baterista de sesión. En 1960 trabaja con Thelonious Monk y con John Coltrane, y un año más tarde la policía retira a Higgins su permiso como músico de clubs por tenencia de drogas, por lo que éste se concentra en el trabajo en estudio. Se convierte en el baterista de facto de la prestigiosa Blue Note Records, y aparece en los créditos de álbumes clásicos como "Go!" de Dexter Gordon, "A Fickle Sonance" de Jackie McLean o "The Sidewinder" de Lee Morgan, además de trabajar con figuras del máximo nivel como Sonny Rollins, Steve Lacy, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock o Hank Mobley. Tras la compra de la editorial por parte de Liberty Records en 1967, Higgins permanece como el baterista principal del equipo habitual de grabaciones, especializándose en el jazz de vanguardia y participando en trabajos seminales como "Attica Blues" de Archie Shepp y "Science Fiction" de Ornette Coleman.

Durante la década de los 70 Higgins se establece como colaborador habitual del pianista Cedar Walton y de la big band Brass Company. En 1978 vuelve a Los Ángeles para editar, al año siguiente, "Soweto", su primer trabajo como líder. Higgins continua su febril actividad como sideman (Joe Henderson, Slide Hampton...) durante la primera mitad de la década de los 80. Tras aparecer en el film de Bertrand Tavernier "'Round Midnight" (1986), se reúne con sus viejos colaboradores Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry y Charlie Haden para un nuevo tour que culmina en el LP "All Languages", publicado en 1987.

Billy Higgins dedica los últimos años de su vida a la enseñanza. En 1996 es sometido a un trasplante de hígado, y tras unos meses vuelve a sus actividades. En 2001 su nuevo hígado vuelve a fallar y, en espera de un nuevo donante, Billy Higgins fallece víctima de una neumonía en el Daniel Freeman Hospital, en Inglewood.