William Edward Childs

William Edward Childs (best known as “Billy Childs”) is a composer and jazz pianist from Los Angeles. Born March 8, 1957, he began piano lessons when he was six. When he was 16, Childs 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.

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 Recordings (Windham Hill, Stretch and Shanachie)

Childs’ solo jazz recording career began in 1988, when he released "Take For Example, This...", the first of four critically acclaimed albums on the Windham Hill Jazz label. He followed that album with "Twilight Is Upon Us" (1989), "His April Touch" (1992), and "Portrait Of A Player" (1993). A long friendship with Chick Corea resulted in Chick’s asking Billy to join his new (at the time) label, Stretch Records, upon Childs’ departure from Windham Hill Jazz. His next album, "I’ve Known Rivers" on Stretch/GRP (now Stretch/Concord) was released in 1995. Childs then followed with"The Child Within", released on the Shanachie record label in 1996. These CDs are now extremely difficult to find, being out of print and having fallen victim to music industry mergers and buyouts.

Work As An Arranger

In 2000 Childs arranged, orchestrated and conducted for the Dianne Reeves recording project "The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan", helping to propel that recording to be a 2002 Grammy winner for "best jazz vocal CD." Other artists and producers Childs has arranged for are: Sting, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, Michael Buble, David Foster, Phil Ramone, and Claudia Acuña.

Jazz Chamber Ensemble

Around 2001 Billy had an idea for a group which would have, at its nucleus, piano, acoustic guitar, and harp. It was a sound partly influenced by Laura Nyro's collaborations with Alice Coltrane (on "Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat") and partly influenced by a desire to merge the classical and jazz music genres. The Jazz-Chamber Ensemble was the result and the group consists of: piano, bass, drums, acoustic guitar, harp and woodwinds. Sometimes the core group is augmented by string quartet, woodwind quintet, or both. In 2005, the ensemble released its first CD, "Lyric, Jazz-Chamber Music, Vol. 1." The CD was nominated for three 2006 Grammy awards (best jazz CD, best instrumental composition, and best instrumental arrangement), winning for best instrumental composition (Into The Light).

Grammy Awards

Childs has been nominated eight times for various Grammy awards, and has taken home the Grammy twice. In two years (1996 & 1997), Childs was nominated three times for a Grammy award; twice for “Best Instrumental Composition” (1996 - “The Starry Night” from “I’ve Known Rivers” and 1997 - “Aaron’s Song” from “The Child Within” ) and once for “Best Performance by a Jazz Group” (1997 - “The Child Within”). In 2002, Childs received a fourth Grammy nomination in the category of “Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist” for his arrangement of “Fascinating Rhythm” on “The Calling - Celebrating Sarah Vaughn” (Dianne Reeves). Childs’ Jazz-Chamber Ensemble was awarded a sizeable grant by Chamber Music America to perform in a venue of his choosing. Lyric (2005), recorded with that group, was nominated for three Grammys in 2006: best instrumental composition (Into The Light), best instrumental arrangement (Scarborough Faire), and best jazz CD (Lyric). Childs won two Grammys that year; one for best instrumental composition (Into The Light) and another (along with Gil Goldstein and Heitor Periera) for best arrangement accompanying Sting singing "What Are you Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" on Chris Botti's CD "To Love Again" (his fourth nomination that year).

Classical Commissions

1992 - Grenoble Jazz Festival, Chamber Orchestra Music (Steve Houghton - soloist)

1993 - Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tone Poem For Holly (Esa-Pekka Salonen - conductor)

1994 - Los Angeles Philharmonic, Fanfare For The United Races Of America (Esa-Pekka Salonen - conductor)

1994 - Monterey Jazz Festival, Concerto Piano and Jazz-Chamber 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 - The 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 Jazz-Chamber 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 - The American Brass Quintet, 2 Elements (Billy Childs - piano, with American Brass Quintet)

2007 - Fontana Chamber Arts, The Path Among The Trees (Billy Childs Jazz-Chamber Ensemble with Ying Quartet)

Discography

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/music/muze/index.pl?site=radio2&action=biography&artist_id=5823&rand= BBC Radio 2 biography]
* [http://www.BillyChilds.com/ Billy Childs' official web site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/billychildspiano Billy's myspace page]