[2] Born in Seattle, Washington, the son of naval machinist Antonio Biggs and Thelma Buchanan,[3] he learned piano as a child and gave his first concert at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city at the age of ten.

At that time, Billboard said of him: "Unlike most colored pianists, he doesn't lean much to boogie-woogie, but specializes in unusually smart arrangements of pops, show tunes, middlebrow and classics.

[10] Biggs then joined another group, the Beavers, for whom he wrote "I'd Rather Be Wrong Than Blue" with Joe Thomas, who had previously been a saxophonist with Jelly Roll Morton.

[2] He continued to perform, and in the early 1950s backed Little Jimmy Scott with a band that included bassist Charles Mingus and guitarist Mundell Lowe.

He later led the Howard Biggs Orchestra which backed leading jazz and R&B vocalists including Dinah Washington, Dakota Staton, Marie Knight and Johnny Hartman.