Jazz Journal’s Simon Adams writes, “Let’s hope they (His’n’Hers) manage to complete another full album soon.”
Ubuntu Music Announces Judith & Dave O’Higgins EP Release
His‘n’Hers / Omicron
Release Date: 14th October 2022
Digital Format / UBU0114
Ubuntu Music is delighted to announce the second release from Judith and Dave O’Higgins with a digital EP that features the ‘His’n’Hers frontline tenor saxes doing battle in straight-ahead, full-on jazz. Omicron consists of three ‘bonus’ tracks which follow their highly successful debut album from 2020.
His’n’Hers affectionately pits Mr & 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.
Judith and Dave O’Higgins (photography: Imageplotter)
Judith and Dave describe the project: “The debut album 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.
Judith and Dave O’Higgins (photography: Imageplotter)
Concerning their ongoing relationship with Ubuntu Music, the couple commented, saying, “It’s great to know Martin Hummel is always on your team, and it’s exciting to be a part of this continued relationship with the ever growing and eclectic label that is Ubuntu.”
Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music concludes: “We’re thrilled to continue our relationship with Judith and Dave. Their eponymous debut album was a runaway success and ‘Omicron’ is the logical extension to this. It’s a joy to have His’n’Hers as a part of the Ubuntu Family.”
For further information, please contact:
Dave O’Higgins ohig@mac.com
Martin Hummel/Ubuntu Music (Worldwide): martin@ubuntumanagementgroup.com
BIOGRAPHIES
Judith O’Higgins was born in Hilden, Germany. She studied medicine and music education in Münster, finished university in Hamburg and became a forensic pathologist. She now lives in London with Dave. Her German autobiography/popular science book, “Spuren des Todes”, was published by Fischer Verlag in 2013.
Although Judith became a forensic pathologist, she continued playing the saxophone to a high standard and her CV includes Matthew Herbert Big Band, Two Minds Big Band, and Barnes/O’Higgins and the Sax Section. Judith also produced and played on the critically acclaimed Abstract Truth Big Band recording which was made under the direction of Jörg Achim Keller at the famous Abbey Road Studio in 2015.
Five years after this hugely ambitious project and with COVID-19 lockdown looming, a recording session was organised for their debut album, just in time before the scene froze.
Judith has a strong tenor sound that evokes the spirit of Dexter Gordon and Clifford Jordan and steps up this time as a featured soloist and composer in this group. She and Dave have written two new originals and play one “greatest hits” from their two-tenor book, honed over a few years of gigs with different rhythm sections. They are joined by the super swinging dream team trio of Graham Harvey (piano), Jeremy Brown (bass) and Josh Morrison (drums).
Dave O’Higgins now has 22 albums as leader to his credit. His sax sounds are highly 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.
Dave is also a highly regarded educator at the London College of Contemporary Media, where he is the Jazz Pathway Leader.
Dave has worked with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Joey Calderazzo, Joe Locke, Dave Kikoski, 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 wrote and produced the last Matt Bianco album, “Gravity”. While his jazz career was in its early stages, Dave cut his teeth as a sideman with Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Dave is currently playing with His’n’Hers, O’Higgins & Luft, Harvey / O’Higgins Project, Darius Brubeck Quartet, Brubecks Play Brubeck, Matt Bianco and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra.
REVIEW: His'n'Hers
Jazz Journal’s Ronald Atkins writes, “The husband and wife saxophone duo take a Traneish approach to high-quality originals and standard material.”
REVIEWS: His'n'Hers and Allison Neale
The Jazz Rag reviews these great Ubuntu releases.
A Big Up for Jaswon and His'n'Hers
Sussex Jazz Magazine delivers rave reviews for these Ubuntu albums.
REVIEW: His'n'Hers
Jazz Mann’s Ian Mann writes, “This is an album that fulfils its objectives admirably, an unpretentious, old style two tenor session featuring some fine playing from the entire band.”
For the full review, please click on the image, above.
The Guardian Goes for His'n'Hers!
Dave Gelly writes, “there’s plenty of imagination and down-to-earth swing to enjoy in these seven tracks.”
His'n'Hers See BBC Stars!
BBC Music Magazine’s Garry Booth writes, “It’s a marriage made in mainstream jazz heaven.”
Judith & Dave on Jazz Views Playlist
On a high from the album launch gig at the 606 club and the release of their collaborative His'N'Hers recording released on Ubuntu Music, husband and wife team, Dave and Judith O'Higgins pick their top ten favourite albums.
With two tenor saxophonists vying for pole position, to avoid a cutting contest we err on the side of diplomacy, and begin with ladies first.
Electing to pick five apiece, of her selection Judith says:
FEATURE: Judith O’Higgins (Feature from German magazine JAZZTHETIK)
For JAZZTHETIK, Sebastian Scotney reports, “Surprises are normal for jazz, but here’s an unusual one: the Judith O’Higgins whose new album “His ‘n’ Hers” (Ubuntu/Orchard), in which she plays tenor saxophone alongside her husband Dave…is one and the same person as Judith O’Higgins the forensic pathologist who has told her extraordinary life-story in depth in a fascinating book “Spuren des Todes” (Fischer Verlag, 2013)”
Judith O’Higgins
This is an English version of Sebastian’s regular “London Column” from the current issue (Nov-Dec 2020) of the German Magazine JAZZTHETIK, out on 28 October 2020:
Surprises are normal for jazz, but here’s an unusual one: the Judith O’Higgins whose new album “His ‘n’ Hers” (Ubuntu/Orchard), in which she plays tenor saxophone alongside her husband Dave…is one and the same person as Judith O’Higgins the forensic pathologist who has told her extraordinary life-story in depth in a fascinating book “Spuren des Todes” (Fischer Verlag, 2013)
She grew up as Judith Schröer in Lippstadt. She has happy memories of going to gigs as a teenager in the clubs in the surrounding area and hearing English bands like Loose Tubes and Itchy Fingers. She didn’t take up the saxophone until she was sixteen but progress was rapid. As a young medical student she joined the University Big Band in Münster, run by trumpeter Bob Lanese, for three decades lead trumpet with James Last. “He became my mentor, and it was he who planted the idea in my mind of moving away from Münster and to give Hamburg a try.” Once in Hamburg, and while doing a doctorate, she played in Lanese’s Downtown Big Band, sometimes alongside top saxophone players from NDR like Lutz Büchner, and once even the great Herb Geller. And there was more jazz in her life too: she lived in the Gärtnerstraße immediately above the Birdland club. “It was like my living room!”
Judith’s double life of forensic pathologist and saxophonist took a very different turn in 2005. She was working in Thailand as part of the team with the harrowing task of identifying the thousands of victims in the tragic aftermath of the tsunami. She wanted a change and was starting to look at jobs in New Zealand, when into her inbox popped an email from a saxophonist friend whom she had known previously as a member of Itchy Fingers, Dave O’Higgins. “And the rest is history,” she smiles. She moved to the UK in 2007, was married to Dave in 2009, has adapted her ways of working to the totally different structures of forensic pathology in the UK.
The new album evokes memories of tenor pairings of the past like Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin. And the sessions? “We had fixed a date to record in April but through my work I could see how quickly the virus was taking hold and that a lockdown was imminent any day. What we needed was to get everything ready. And in the end we recorded just in time, on 21 March.” The sessions were against a deadline but what the album expresses is joy. And love. Which is perhaps the least surprising thing in this whole story.