Patience Higgins is a man with the right first name. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina and has built a career in New York City.  He plays all saxophones, clarinets, flutes, and double reeds, is the leader of the Sugar Hill Jazz Quartet, and has been a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra since 1987.  Patience was featured on the 1998 double Grammy Award recording by Dee Dee Bridgewater, “Dear Ella”. He has also toured and recorded with (among many others) the Count Basie Orchestra, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Savion Glover.  Patience has played more than a dozen Broadway shows and several soundtrack recordings.  He is happiest on the bandstand and is known to his close friends as Count Gigula.