[b]Release Date:[/b] 1991 [b]Recording Date:[/b] [b]Label:[/b] Windham Hill [b]Styles:[/b] Post-Bop
Releases:
CD Windham Hill WD-0131 CD Windham Hill Jazz WD-0131 - [b]This CD[/b] 1993 CD Windham Hill 876251
Scott Yanow (AMG)
One of the most promising of the pianist-composers of the 1990s, Billy Childs is a superb player and an underrated writer. He toured with J.J. Johnson (with whom he made his recording debut), graduated from USC, had an important association with Freddie Hubbard (1978-1984), and led Night Flight (a group with Dianne Reeves). Childs recorded four albums as a leader for Windham Hill Jazz (starting in 1988) and one for Stretch; started writing commissioned works in 1992 (including a 1994 concerto for the Monterey Jazz Festival); and has worked with Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Daniels, Bobby Hutcherson, and Branford Marsalis, among others, in addition to leading his own regular quartet
More links: http://www.billychilds.com/bio.aspx - oficial site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Childs http://www.bucknell.edu/x38702.xml http://www.m-audio.com/artists/en_us/BillyChilds.html
Scott Yanow (AMG)
Billy Childs focuses on his piano playing during his third Windham Hill Jazz CD (although he contributed seven of the eight numbers), and he demonstrates that he was quickly rising to the top of his field. Childs uses either acoustic bassist Tony Dumas or electric bassist Jimmy Johnson, drummer Mike Baker, Bob Sheppard (on tenor, soprano, alto and flute) and, for section work (on respectively one or two cuts), trombonist Bruce Fowler and trumpeter Walt Fowler. A highlight is Childs' trio exploration of McCoy Tyner's "Four by Five." The pianist's music is complex and quite original, not fitting securely into any preconceived category except as "modern jazz." This is one of Billy Childs' best all-round sessions to date