J. C. (Jack) Higginbotham (1906–1973) was an American jazz trombonist. His playing was robust and swinging. He was considered to be the most vital of the swing trombone players, whose strong, raucous sound on the trombone and wild outbreaks on stage were characteristic of him. Along Jimmy Harrison and Jack Teagarden, Higginbotham contributed to the acceptance of the trombone in jazz music as a melodically capable instrument. Higginbotham played with some of the premier swing bands. He also played with Louis Armstrong. He recorded extensively, both as a sideman and as a leader. He led several bands in the Fifties in Boston and Cleveland, appeared regularly at the Metropole in New York between 1956 and 1959, and led his own Dixieland band there in the Sixties. He went on his first European tour with Sam Price, appearing in Scandinavia, and worked once again briefly in 1964 with Louis Armstrong. After that things quietened down around Higginbotham. The musician died in May, 1973 in New York.