Diane Witherspoon at Piedmont Piano Company

Diane Witherspoon is arguably one of the best living female jazz vocalists in our time. She has had a long career performing in the U.S., but has spent her recent years performing mainly abroad. This concert is Ms. Witherspoon's real comeback to the Bay Area where she has a fan base who has missed her dearly.

West Coast jazz drummer Myron Cohen was with the late, great jazz drummer, Mr. Billy Higgins very closely for the last few years before his passing. Higgins requested that Myron work with Diane as much as he could after he passed - and Myron has several times. He created The Billy Higgins Legacy Band and has assembled a group of musicians that is more than befitting to accompany Ms. Witherspoon. They will be covering tunes from the re-issued CD, 'You May Never Know' featuring the music of Cedar Walton, as well as new material and fresh arrangements of familiar ones....

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Diane Witherspoon is arguably one of the best living female jazz vocalists in our time. She has had a long career performing in the U.S., but has spent her recent years performing mainly abroad. This concert is Ms. Witherspoon's real comeback to the Bay Area where she has a fan base who has missed her dearly.

West Coast jazz drummer Myron Cohen was with the late, great jazz drummer, Mr. Billy Higgins very closely for the last few years before his passing. Higgins requested that Myron work with Diane as much as he could after he passed - and Myron has several times. He created The Billy Higgins Legacy Band and has assembled a group of musicians that is more than befitting to accompany Ms. Witherspoon. They will be covering tunes from the re-issued CD, 'You May Never Know' featuring the music of Cedar Walton, as well as new material and fresh arrangements of familiar ones.

Musical Director and Pianist, Norman Landsberg (Pointer Sisters, Lenny Williams); Drummer, Myron Cohen ( Mike Bloomfield, Bobby Hutcherson, Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, Tony Williams, Miles Davis); Double Bassist, Carla Kaufman (Wesla Whitfield, Ed Reed, Denise Perrier, Kenny Washington & more); Reeds, Jesse Levit (James Moody, Wynton Marsalis, Khalil Shaheed, Frankye Kelly & more)

About The Billy Higgins Legacy Band
The BHLB was conceived by Myron Cohen in response to his own experience of musical mentoring by master drummers Louie Bellson, Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich, John Rae, Dave Black, Sonny Freeman, Buddy Miles, Subash Chandran, Ed Thigpen, Billy Hart, George Brown, and most notably the late, great, Billy Higgins. In addition to playing music, Cohen also has a disarming talent as a raconteur and collector of jazz stories from his friendships in the jazz community. In the last few years of his life, drummer Billy Higgins gave a great deal to Cohen including some fascinating stories of his life and music. Billy understood Cohen’s commitment to mentoring young musicians–especially drummers–and arranged for Cohen to work with specific West Coast jazz musicians that would appreciate Cohen’s musicality. The one vocalist Billy really wanted Cohen to work with was Diane Witherspoon. It is in the spirit of Billy’s musical mentoring that The Billy Higgins Legacy Band (BHLB) was formed, and it continues to evolve with Cohen as the leader. Debuting tonight is a recent configuration of the BHLB featuring Diane Witherspoon.

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