Michael Haggins

Michael Haggins, electric bassist and songwriter, is a consummate craftsman of smooth jazz tinged with funk and old school R&B. Inspired by the likes of Stanley Clarke, the Isley Brothers, George Duke, and Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael was born into a family with impressive musical roots. His uncle, Al Duncan, was a classic session drummer who urged Michael to take a career in music seriously. (Al is known as one of the less than half dozen key studio legends from the 50’s & 60’s who’ve been called “the grandfathers of groove”.) Al played jazz, blues, rock and gospel, and was as comfortable as a house drummer playing with the jazz of Willie Dixon, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, as the rock of The Miracles, The Temptations or Marvin Gaye.

Though Michael started with a guitar at 8, he’d moved to the alto sax on the 5th grade, finally ending up at 10 with the electric bass that now defines his work. He studied jazz at Pasadena City College, and in the ‘80’s, played with future Billboard chart-topper Robbie Nevil. He picked up work with other groups along the way until 2000 when he decided to form his own Band and record his compositions on his own label, Cuate Records. By 2004, he’d released his first CD, Daybreak (whose title song would later be heard on many episodes of NBC’s Emmy-winning Community), followed by Traffic in 2008 (recognized as one of the top ten albums in 2009 by Smooth Jazz Magazine), and Dare To Dream in 2015. The Michael Haggins Band performs extensively at venues throughout southern California blissfully sharing the sounds of laid back west coast smooth jazz.