Billy Higgins - Mr. Billy Higgins 1985 Riza lp Private OG RARE Spiritual Jazz NM

$

56

Welcome to our Winter Holiday Special 2025 "Mega" Jazz auction! The main focus is jazz-funk, spiritual jazz, fusion, soul-jazz, rare groove lp's, largely from the late 1960's-1970's, all originals, no reissues! WE COMBINE SHIPPING! :)
Approximately 500+ lp's, all originals (no reissues!), many have soundclips, which are from the actual record!

This week features so many rare top shelf lp's, how to begin? The rare original Phil Ranelin "Vibes From The Tribe" 1976 lp, Minoru Muraoka's 1970 "Bamboo" 1st Japan Press lp, Larry Von Nash's ultra-rare 1984 "On Time & In Tune", Sarah Webster Fabio, Jack Wilkin's Windows 1973 lp with Red Clay! Andy Bey, giant portions of the CTI, Blue Note (late 60's-early to mid 70's), Impulse! (late 60's-early to mid 70's), Muse, Mainstream Red Lion, Tax Scam grails, Prestige / Fantasy / Milestone label (late 60's through 70's), Walt Barr's two rarest lp's (plus his very first when he directed a stage band in Arizona!), multiple Carlos Garnett, nearly every Eddie Henderson record, Les Demerle, Sonny Sharrock (both Black Woman on Vortex, and Paradise!), Steve Kuhn's 1971 s/t lp, Bernard Purdie, a small curated selection of rare School Band Jazz Funk lp's, several Alice Coltrane, rare private pressings, there is so much heat we can't possibly highlight even the highlights (it took 15+ years to accumulate, collect these gems) and yes we start with about 36 samples of highlights, but by no means are they the only high-end items, as a collector whose lovingly maintained this for more than a decade, not to sound immodest, but this auction will be like seeing the want list of dreams come alive :), it's not easy to part with these gems, but the hope is they will go to loving homes to be enjoyed as much as we have, and more! :)
They are roughly ordered by label (for example all mainstream, CTI, Blue Note, ECM, Prestige/Fantasy/Milestone, Impulse!, Flying Dutchman, etc. are cohesive, within it goes chronological, although multiple releases on label by same artist are grouped together), the best way to get the feel is to sort by "ending soonest" which means the beginning, and browse through, we hope it is a pleasing accessible order of items :)

**Note on shipping: We have it set to 10 business days shipping & handling, we're a two person operation, that being said, we will doing everything humanly possible to get your package out as soon as possible, we'll be boxing from morning to night to get everything out as fast as possible, if you need your purchase as a holiday gift please message us so we can make that a priority (we hope that's fair to folks, given the timing!), also if you would like priority mail, please send us a message before purchasing so we can invoice that at lowest cost :). Typically any order over $120 in the US will automatically be given a free upgrade from media mail to priority mail at no extra cost :)  

* After this week's auction, we have in the pipeline auctions of rare ambient/electronic 60's/70's, modern soul/gospel boogie coming up, golden era early 70's funk/soul, and much more! We'd be honored if you'd consider saving us as a favorite seller :)* 
All soundclips used are unedited directly from the item up for sale :). See below for detailed grading!
***Everything is 100% guaranteed! We've sold over 1,500+ records in the past year alone, with 100% positive feedback, bid with confidence :)

Feel free to message any questions!

*Note: Any Item that does not have a soundclip, feel free to message us, and we can make one for you :)

**Note: for items with multiple players, the title of track is above each player; the player enables scrolling through!**

Soundclip info: A1 Dance Of The Clones, A2 John Coltrane, B1 Morning Awakening, B3 East Side Stomp -(one really has to listen to the full tracks, it's difficult to make a compact spiritual jazz clip, without losing the essence, these are 12 minute, 9 minute long tracks for the most part, we won't have timing as typical, rather just feel free to scroll through, we hope we caught in this slice, a glimpse into this sleeping giant just beginning to awaken...*some tracks feature different portions* :)
Soundclip:  Update your internet browser to latest version in order to play audio clip.

Media Grade:  NM  
Sleeve Grade:  VG+ (solid, light storage wear, see photos!)
Year / Label / Catalogue #:   1985  /  Riza Records  /  RRL-85-104
Brief Comments: Iman Dr. Riza Jardan, was a friend of Wali Ali (who played on "Hijrah's Truly Free" lp), and Warith Deen Mohammed (Wallace D. Muhammad, who after his NOI father Elijah Muhammad, who he severely disagreed with*, passed away, split off, into Orthodox Sunni Islam, predominately on the West Coast, in California), he had a successful practice, along with being a spiritual equivalent of a Priest, Pastor, Rabbi. 
Riza Jardan loved the Hijrah - Truly Free album, he loved jazz, especially Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", he was a huge supporter of the "Creative Arts Ensemble", and with Horace Tapscott's blessing, decided to create a label, a small, virtually private press label, to release the next album by them "New Horizons" 1983, a grail piece, and Dr. Riza was amazing, he wanted the artists to do what they felt, to make moving music, spiritual jazz in the most literal sense. Azar Lawrence was another (among many, Dr. Riza Jardan had deep crates!) favorite, and he wanted Azar again, to make how he felt, with Shadow Dancing, a jazz-funk boogie modern soul lp, he trusted the artists.
His third release, was master drummer Billy Higgins (his first US solo release), he's played on your favorites, his credits read like most crate diggers wantlist! 
Billy Higgins cut the modal spiritual jazz album, he envisioned, wanted to make, Gary Bias joins on bass, William "Bill" Henderson on the piano, and Tony Dumas on bass. "John Coltrane" is the only cover, it's an original by Bill Lee*, from the 1974 Strata-East release "The Descendants of Phoebe and Mike" lp, track A2 (Billy Higgins with Bill Lee's blessing, stretches it from 4 minutes to a little over 12, really feeling it, Bill Lee was so pleased, he liked it better than the cut on Strata! And Yes, if you were wondering, Billy Higgins is playing percussion on that very Strata lp, on that original version, it was his favorite session). 
The first track is a Bill Henderson original composition, and the entire B side are all Gary Bias originals. 
It's a masterpiece, the kind of spiritual modal jazz that hits you like Ahmad Jamal's "Awakening", or Strata-East releases. Believe me, this one is harder than hard to part with....I've loved it deeply (I have wav. files for my own music library I made from it), I hope you will love this gem, feel as moved by it, as I have, and give it a loving enjoyable home :)
*fun fact: Bill Lee is the father of famous film director Spike Lee!! :)

Tariffs aren't going to impact used vinyl records / music media, we wish they were never in place at all, so for international buyers, don't worry on that account!
For our record grading, we stand by the merits outlined in the scale below, anything VG or below will have a detailed explanation in brackets next to the grade.
For sleeves, we will mention anytime there is split, or defect not visible in the photos in brackets next to the grade, otherwise we refer to the photos for the merit of the grade. Of course any questions, concerns, are always welcome :) 
Our media grading scale is as follows: [*Quick note, our VPI is still in storage on the other side of the US, we do brush clean many  items carefully, but we have to prioritize, we won't leave anyone stranded with a filthy record, only "filthy" good! We don't factor dust particles into the grading]
NM = Essentially a pristine album, like new, rarely used.
EX = Under bright light if there is any scuffs or mark, which will be inaudible, most collectors and sellers would tend to consider it closer to NM, EX is also the grade others might call VG++ under the same level of conservative scrutiny.
VG+ = More then a small handful of scuffs, light marks, nothing feelable, will have high-gloss, a thoroughly enjoyable copy that may only have tiny moments of barely perceptible surface noise overpowered by the music. Our VG+ will satisfy the vast majority of collectors as a nice keeper copy, as collector's ourselves for nearly two decades, this grade is aimed to be a great keeper. Note if say the record has a light DNAP warp, but otherwise is NM, we will automatically put it to VG+ and detail that. Another scenario is if a copy plays at a solid EX, but visually is VG, the composite grade will be VG+, and detailed as such.
VG = More hairlines, more marks, maybe a few visible scratches, no more then two feelable scratches (which automatically lowers to VG-), there likely will be surface noise, but will play through, still being an enjoyable copy, the audio quality will satisfy most collector's (the golden rule: if it doesn't satisfy us, it won't be VG), if a record is otherwise EX, but has a slight momentary skip, where 99% of the record is EX, we will note that, and put it at VG. Usually will retain a nice gloss.
VG- = More Scratches than VG, surface noise will jump out more, it be overpowered for longer stretches, or compete with the music in places, it will likely play all the way through on most turntables, a copy that you can still get a decent play enjoyment from.
G+ = Lots of scratches, deeper ones, surface noise now mostly overpowers or competes with the music. It may skip in some places. We don't tend to sell G+ copies, unless the rarity is so great, and that will be precisely detailed.
Thrashed = Pretty much a "Theoretical Grade" for us, it be for all intents & purposes virtually unplayable, it would be for display purposes, or perhaps if you needed the cover but not the record. It's "theoretical" because so far we haven't sold or identified anything intended to sell at this bottom level.
Every item is guaranteed to YOUR satisfaction, no questions asked, 100% refund. We stand by our integrity, our goal is to make sure you are absolutely delighted with your purchase, to deliver a cherished album to your collection :). On the slightest chance of human error, if we make a mistake, we take accountability for that, we don't anyone to have a record they aren't happy with! Bid with confidence :)
If you have multiple items, please wait for us to combine shipping for you! We can combine up to 4 items for the standard shipping rate, and save you $ on additional items. We don't charge a single penny over what the shipping costs, so you are paying only the amount the postal service receives!
Default shipping is USPS media mail, USPS International mail. If you prefer a different carrier, or expedited shipping, please message us before payment, so we can set up the invoice for you :)
We have it set to 5 day shipping / handling time, as a just in case, typically about 98.7% of our orders are shipped out the day of payment (first day the post office is open), with the vast majority being the second day. We'll message on the extraordinary off-chance if doesn't go out on Tuesday (our auctions mostly ending on Saturdays, Sundays), with the reason and day it will go out, so far that's only happened once on a giant order, and all was well.
Thank you from EnfieldVinyl, a family business, and the auction venture of EnfieldRecords :)
Kindly,
-Alec :D
&
-Ellie :)