James Garland Riggs (born July 28, 1941) is an American saxophonist in classical and jazz idioms, big band director, collegiate music educator, and international music clinician. He is also a University of North Texas Regents Professor Emeritus .
Career
As performer
As a University of North Texas student (1969–72) Riggs performed with the University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band. Riggs performed regularly with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Riggs also appeared as a jazz soloist with the United States Navy Commodores in Washington, D.C.
Riggs is the leader and founder of The Official Texas Jazz Orchestra, a Dallas-based ensemble dedicated to performing state of the art large jazz ensemble music. Riggs has conducted All-State Jazz Bands in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee. Riggs has appeared as a featured performer and clinician at Jazz Festivals throughout the USA and Sweden. As a freelance artist he has performed with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Henry Mancini, Ray Charles and Nelson Riddle. He is a prolific studio recording artist.
As educator
Until his retirement in August 2008, Riggs had been professor in the Jazz Studies and Performance Divisions of University of North Texas College of Music where he had taught applied saxophone, directed the Two O'Clock Lab Band, and taught Jazz Style and Analysis. Riggs joined the North Texas faculty in the fall of 1973. Riggs has instructed many prominent alumni of the Jazz Studies program at North Texas.
Riggs directed the Two O'Clock Lab Band while coordinating the world's largest enrollment of saxophone students.[1] The Two O'Clock Lab Band was named "winner" in Downbeat Magazine's "Annual Student Music Awards" in 1994, 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2008. He has produced many national and international award-winning saxophonists, including first-place winners and finalists in the North American Saxophone Alliance Young Artist Competition, semifinalists in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition (Luis Hernandez 2002; Dave Pietro 1991 & 1996; Clay Pritchard 2013), and winners in Down Beat Magazine Student Music Solo Awards.
Riggs former students hold teaching and performing positions in numerous colleges and universities throughout the United States and in elite military bands in Washington, D.C. His students hold first call professional playing positions across the globe including Hamburg, New York City and Los Angeles.
Groovey, James Riggs, Rich Matteson, Phil Wilson, Bengt Hallberg, Jack Petersen, Red Mitchell, Egil Johansen, Four Leaf Clover Records, FLC 5060 (1981)
Kneedeep in Paradise Jim CaJacob and Friends, (1998)
The Never Ending Blues, "The Lou Fisher Big Band," Mark Records, MJS-57625
The Legend, The Lou Fisher Big Band (1980)
Royal Street, The Lou Fisher Big Band, Sea Breeze SB 2012 (1983)
Playin' In the Park, Pete Petersen And The Collection Jazz Orchestra (1985)
