Billy Higgins began his career playing rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll with such musicians as Amos Milburn and Bo Diddley in the Los Angeles area, then played jazz with the Jazz Messiahs (led by Don Cherry and the saxophonist James Clay) and Dexter Gordon, and from the mid-1950s took part in rehearsals with Ornette Coleman; in 1958 he recorded with Coleman and with Red Mitchell.