William Edward Childs

William Edward Childs (born March 8, 1957), best known as Billy Childs, is a composer and jazz pianist from Los Angeles.^[1]

Early life

Childs began piano lessons when he was six. At the age of 16, he started attending the Community School of the Performing Arts, a prestigious music program sponsored by the University of Southern California (USC). After having studied theory there with Marienne Uszler and piano with John Weisenfluh, he attended USC (1975–79), earning a bachelor of music degree in composition, under the tutelage of Robert Linn.^[2]

Childs was playing professionally as a teenager and he made his recording debut in 1977 with the J. J. Johnson Quintet during a tour of Japan that is documented as the Yokohama Concert. He gained significant attention during his six-years (1978–84) playing with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's group. While influenced early on in his playing by Herbie Hancock, Keith Emerson, and Chick Corea and in his composing by Paul Hindemith, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky, Childs nevertheless had an original conception of his own from near the start, developing his own voice as both a pianist and a composer in jazz and classical music genres.

Solo albums

Childs's solo jazz recording career began in 1988, when he released Take for Example, This..., the first of four critically acclaimed albums on Windham Hill Jazz. He followed that album with Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1992), and Portrait of a Player (1993). Chick Corea asked Childs to join his label, Stretch Records. Childs's next album, I've Known Rivers appeared on Stretch/GRP (now Stretch/Concord) in 1995. This was followed by The Child Within on Shanachie Records in 1996.

Arranging

In 2000 Childs arranged, orchestrated and conducted for Dianne Reeves's project The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan,^[1] which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Other artists and producers for whom Childs has arranged include Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, Michael Bublé, David Foster, Phil Ramone, and Claudia Acuña.

Jazz Chamber Ensemble

In 2001 Childs formed a group which consisited of piano, bass, drums, acoustic guitar, harp, and woodwinds. Sometimes the core group is augmented by string quartet, woodwind quintet, or both. Childs was influenced by Laura Nyro's collaborations with Alice Coltrane (on "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat") and by a desire to merge classical and jazz music.^[3] In 2005, the ensemble released its first album, Lyric, Jazz-Chamber Music, Vol. 1, which was nominated for three 2006 Grammy awards: Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Arrangement, winning for best instrumental composition, "Into the Light".

Awards and honors

• 2003 New Composition Grant, Chamber Music America
• 2006 Grammy Award, Best Instrumental Composition, "Into the Light"^[4]
• 2006 Grammy Award, Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist, "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?"
• 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship^[2]
• 2011 Grammy Award, Best Instrumental Composition, "The Path Among the Trees"
• 2013 Doris Duke Artist Award
• 2015 Grammy Award, Best Arrangement Instruments and Vocals, "New York Tendaberry"

Classical commissions

• 1992 Grenoble Jazz Festival, "Chamber Orchestra Music" (Steve Houghton soloist)
• 1993 Los Angeles Philharmonic,"Tone Poem for Holly" (EsaPekka Salonen conductor)
• 1994 Los Angeles Philharmonic, "Fanfare for the United Races of America" (EsaPekka Salonen conductor)
• 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival, "Concerto Piano and JazzChamber Orchestra" (Billy Childs soloist)
• 1995 Akron Symphony Orchestra, "The Distant Land" (Alan Balter conductor)
• 1997 Akron Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, "Just Like Job" (Alan Balter conductor)
• 1997 Dorian Wind Quintet, "A Day in the Forest of Dreams" (Billy Childs piano, with Dorian Wind Quintet)
• 1997 Mancini Institute, "The Winds of Change" (Roy Hargrove soloist)
• 2001 Kuumbwa Jazz Society, "Into the Light" (Billy Childs JazzChamber Ensemble)
• 2004 Los Angeles Philharmonic, "For Suzanne" (Dianne Reeves vocal soloist, Billy Childs piano soloist)
• 2004 Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, "The Fierce Urgency of Now" (Wynton Marsalis musical director)
• 2005 Los Angeles Master Chorale, "The Voices of Angels" (Grant Gershon conductor)
• 2007 American Brass Quintet, "2 Elements" (Billy Childs piano, with American Brass Quintet)
• 2007 Fontana Chamber Arts, "The Path Among the Trees" (Billy Childs JazzChamber Ensemble with Ying Quartet)
• 2010 Detroit Symphony, "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" (Regina Carter, soloist)
• 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival, "Music for Two Quartets" (Kronos Quartet with Billy Childs, Brian Blade, Scott Colley, and Steve Wilson)
• 2012 Ying Quartet, "Awakening String Quartet No. 2" (The Ying Quartet)

Discography

With J. J. Johnson and Nat Adderley

• The Yokohama Concert (Pablo Live, 1978)
• Chain Reaction: Yokohama Concert, Vol. 2 (Pablo, 1977 [2002])
• Concepts in Blue (Pablo Today, 1981)

References

External links

• Official website