Biography
Billy Childs stands out among jazz pianists, arrangers, and composers for his dual identity as a post-bop improvisor and a highly sought musical director. Emerging in the 1980s as one of the decade’s strongest piano talents, he blends modern jazz, soul, pop, chamber, choral, orchestral, and neo-classical elements into a cohesive personal sound. Technical mastery paired with a light yet indelible touch has led him to record and perform alongside Freddie Hubbard, Chris Botti, Dianne Reeves, and numerous other artists. His first album as a leader, the 1988 release Take for Example This..., launched a string of four charting projects for Windham Hill. Subsequent honors include the 2013 Doris Duke Award, the 2015 American Academy of Arts and Letters Composer Award, and Grammy victories for the 2014 album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro—a star-studded session featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Wayne Shorter, Alison Krauss, and additional guests—and the 2017 small-group effort Rebirth. Classical organizations regularly commission new pieces from him. The Holocaust-themed cantata “The Voices of Angels,” which sets texts written by children held in the Terezin concentration camp for orchestra, choir, and soloists, received its premiere from the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Additional commissions have come from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Dorian Wind Quintet. In 2023 he assembled an all-star quartet with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade to record the Grammy-winning Winds of Change.
Childs entered the world in 1957 in Los Angeles, where his parents both taught; he grew up alongside older sister Kirsten J. Childs, the playwright, in a home filled with jazz, classical, popular, and Brazilian recordings. Piano study began at age four, and by six he was already appearing in public. At sixteen he entered the USC Community School of the Performing Arts, later earning a Bachelor of Music in composition while studying with Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen. During his student years he worked the Los Angeles jazz circuit and made his recording debut in 1977 on a Japanese tour with the J. J. Johnson Quintet featuring Nat Adderley, later issued as The Yokohama Concert.
Between 1978 and 1984 he served as Freddie Hubbard’s pianist and musical director while also leading the ensemble Night Flight, whose frontwoman Dianne Reeves benefited from his production, performance, and compositional contributions on her 1982 debut album; their partnership has endured. Late in 1987 he joined the Windham Hill Jazz roster and delivered Take for Example This... the following year. Three further Windham Hill releases—Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1991), and Portrait of a Player (1993)—all reached the charts. In 1992 he recorded Dedication for Musicdisc with Bunny Brunel, Mike Stern, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Classical commissions began arriving in the early 1990s, the first being a concerto for the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival.
The lone Stretch/GRP album I’ve Known Rivers appeared in 1995; Chick Corea produced the date, which featured guitarist Scott Henderson and bassist Jimmy Johnson. Strong international reviews paved the way for a Shanachie contract and the 1996 critical breakthrough The Child Within, whose personnel included Dave Holland, Ravi Coltrane, Terence Blanchard, and Jeff “Tain” Watts. After extensive touring, Childs concentrated on session work, composing, and arranging, collaborating during this period with Gerry Gibbs, Grover Washington, Jr., Carmen Lundy, Paula Cole, and Joe Locke. Herbie Hancock chose him to replace the bandleader on half the tracks of 1998’s Return of the Headhunters. The next year Childs rejoined Hubbard for Above & Beyond and continued his association with Reeves on Bridges; he also appeared as co-billed soloist on the Dorian Wind Quintet’s 1999 recording First Glimpses of Sunlight.
Bedtime Stories (A Tribute to Herbie Hancock), a 2000 trio album for 32 Jazz, paired him with drummer Billy Hart and bassist George Mraz. Public visibility rose sharply once he joined trumpeter Chris Botti’s band for 2001’s Night Sessions; he subsequently appeared on several charting Botti projects, among them December (2002), When I Fall in Love (2004), Italia (2007), and Impressions (2012). Between tours with Botti he continued to guest, compose, and arrange for artists including Claudia Acuna, Burt Bacharach, Reeves, Gladys Knight, and Jill Scott, while accepting further commissions such as Voices of the Angels, supported by a Chamber Music America Composer’s Grant. A 2009 Guggenheim fellowship preceded the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, released in 2014 on Sony Masterworks, fulfilled a long-held ambition; Childs supplied arrangements and piano for ten Nyro songs, matching world-class instrumentalists with singers drawn from classical, pop, soul, country, and jazz circles. The pairing of Yo-Yo Ma with Renée Fleming on the Grammy-winning single “New York Tendaberry” exemplified the approach, which also united Susan Tedeschi with saxophonist Steve Wilson, Esperanza Spalding with Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter with Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin with Botti, and Alison Krauss with Jerry Douglas. Childs accompanied vocalists Lisa Fischer, Ledisi, Becca Stevens, and Reeves. The best-selling set reached number six on the Billboard 200 and earned him an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.
Rebirth, a lean quartet album for Mack Avenue, marked a 2017 return to small-group jazz with saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Eric Harland. It climbed to number five on the jazz albums chart, appeared on numerous critics’ year-end lists, and captured the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. After touring and contributing to country songwriter Brad Colerick’s Nine Ten Thirty, Childs issued Acceptance on Mack Avenue in 2020. Retaining the core rhythm section from Rebirth, the sessions added flutist Elena Pinderhughes, vocalists Alicia Olatuja, Aubrey Johnson, and Sara Gazarek, and percussionists Rogerio Boccato and Munyungo Jackson. New compositions sat alongside earlier pieces; advance single “Dori,” a samba drawing on the work of Brazilian composer Dorival Caymmi (with whom Childs had collaborated in 1994), shared space with revisited tracks such as “Quiet Girl” and “Twilight Is Upon Us,” both dating to his first two albums.
For his third Mack Avenue release, 2023’s Winds of Change, Childs convened an all-star quartet featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade. The group explored originals and covers inspired by the soundtrack and film-noir scores of Jerry Goldsmith, Michel Legrand, and Bernard Herrmann. In February 2024 the album received the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
Childs entered the world in 1957 in Los Angeles, where his parents both taught; he grew up alongside older sister Kirsten J. Childs, the playwright, in a home filled with jazz, classical, popular, and Brazilian recordings. Piano study began at age four, and by six he was already appearing in public. At sixteen he entered the USC Community School of the Performing Arts, later earning a Bachelor of Music in composition while studying with Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen. During his student years he worked the Los Angeles jazz circuit and made his recording debut in 1977 on a Japanese tour with the J. J. Johnson Quintet featuring Nat Adderley, later issued as The Yokohama Concert.
Between 1978 and 1984 he served as Freddie Hubbard’s pianist and musical director while also leading the ensemble Night Flight, whose frontwoman Dianne Reeves benefited from his production, performance, and compositional contributions on her 1982 debut album; their partnership has endured. Late in 1987 he joined the Windham Hill Jazz roster and delivered Take for Example This... the following year. Three further Windham Hill releases—Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1991), and Portrait of a Player (1993)—all reached the charts. In 1992 he recorded Dedication for Musicdisc with Bunny Brunel, Mike Stern, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Classical commissions began arriving in the early 1990s, the first being a concerto for the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival.
The lone Stretch/GRP album I’ve Known Rivers appeared in 1995; Chick Corea produced the date, which featured guitarist Scott Henderson and bassist Jimmy Johnson. Strong international reviews paved the way for a Shanachie contract and the 1996 critical breakthrough The Child Within, whose personnel included Dave Holland, Ravi Coltrane, Terence Blanchard, and Jeff “Tain” Watts. After extensive touring, Childs concentrated on session work, composing, and arranging, collaborating during this period with Gerry Gibbs, Grover Washington, Jr., Carmen Lundy, Paula Cole, and Joe Locke. Herbie Hancock chose him to replace the bandleader on half the tracks of 1998’s Return of the Headhunters. The next year Childs rejoined Hubbard for Above & Beyond and continued his association with Reeves on Bridges; he also appeared as co-billed soloist on the Dorian Wind Quintet’s 1999 recording First Glimpses of Sunlight.
Bedtime Stories (A Tribute to Herbie Hancock), a 2000 trio album for 32 Jazz, paired him with drummer Billy Hart and bassist George Mraz. Public visibility rose sharply once he joined trumpeter Chris Botti’s band for 2001’s Night Sessions; he subsequently appeared on several charting Botti projects, among them December (2002), When I Fall in Love (2004), Italia (2007), and Impressions (2012). Between tours with Botti he continued to guest, compose, and arrange for artists including Claudia Acuna, Burt Bacharach, Reeves, Gladys Knight, and Jill Scott, while accepting further commissions such as Voices of the Angels, supported by a Chamber Music America Composer’s Grant. A 2009 Guggenheim fellowship preceded the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, released in 2014 on Sony Masterworks, fulfilled a long-held ambition; Childs supplied arrangements and piano for ten Nyro songs, matching world-class instrumentalists with singers drawn from classical, pop, soul, country, and jazz circles. The pairing of Yo-Yo Ma with Renée Fleming on the Grammy-winning single “New York Tendaberry” exemplified the approach, which also united Susan Tedeschi with saxophonist Steve Wilson, Esperanza Spalding with Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter with Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin with Botti, and Alison Krauss with Jerry Douglas. Childs accompanied vocalists Lisa Fischer, Ledisi, Becca Stevens, and Reeves. The best-selling set reached number six on the Billboard 200 and earned him an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.
Rebirth, a lean quartet album for Mack Avenue, marked a 2017 return to small-group jazz with saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Eric Harland. It climbed to number five on the jazz albums chart, appeared on numerous critics’ year-end lists, and captured the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. After touring and contributing to country songwriter Brad Colerick’s Nine Ten Thirty, Childs issued Acceptance on Mack Avenue in 2020. Retaining the core rhythm section from Rebirth, the sessions added flutist Elena Pinderhughes, vocalists Alicia Olatuja, Aubrey Johnson, and Sara Gazarek, and percussionists Rogerio Boccato and Munyungo Jackson. New compositions sat alongside earlier pieces; advance single “Dori,” a samba drawing on the work of Brazilian composer Dorival Caymmi (with whom Childs had collaborated in 1994), shared space with revisited tracks such as “Quiet Girl” and “Twilight Is Upon Us,” both dating to his first two albums.
For his third Mack Avenue release, 2023’s Winds of Change, Childs convened an all-star quartet featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade. The group explored originals and covers inspired by the soundtrack and film-noir scores of Jerry Goldsmith, Michel Legrand, and Bernard Herrmann. In February 2024 the album received the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
Albums
Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro
2014
Skim Coat
1999
Portrait Of A Player
1993
Twilight Is Upon Us
1989
Take For Example This
1988
Singles
