Dave & Judith O’Higgins Quintet

It’s a warm welcome return to Dean Street for the most highly rated saxophone duo; Husband & Wife Dave & Judith O’Higgins, playing the fabulous sounds from their new album.

Dave O’Higgins has been a mainstay of the UK jazz scene since the early 1990s when he first emerged as a bandleader, just in the wake of the 80s jazz boom and following in the footsteps of Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard and Tommy Smith.

O’Higgins’ early albums as leader were cutting edge for the time; a convincing band of British post bop, with a focus on original material.

In more recent years O’Higgins’ music has been more firmly rooted in the jazz mainstream. His previously release teamed him with the young, rising star guitarist Rob Luft on a selection of tunes associated with Monk and Coltrane: one of twenty two albums as leader or co-leader.

Most recently Dave has performed with a quartet playing the wide range of music by the tenor great John Coltrane, together with a quintet, adding the alto saxophone of Tom Smith to play the inspiring sounds from Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. And Dave has now joined the high quality Sunday lunchtime concerts with his own arrangements for his Big Band.

Dave’s German born wife Judith, studied both medicine and music education and has enjoyed a successful career as a forensic pathologist. As a saxophonist she has worked with the Matthew Herbert Big Band; the Two Minds Big Band, and with the octet and The Sax Section, co-led by Dave and Alan Barnes.

Recorded in March 2020, their previous album “His ‘n’ Hers” was, in part, a product of the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea of a two tenor set was inspired by the Johnny Griffin / Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davies group, which recorded several albums in the format back in the 1960s. And this lunchtime sees the arrival of their latest new album together.