Billy Childs

Two-time Grammy winning pianist/composer Billy Childs and his stellar quartet take the stage at Jazz Standard, January 26-29. Appearing with Childs will be saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Eric Harland.

Billy Childs was born in Los Angeles in 1957, and his aptitude for piano was apparent by age 6. At age 16, he enrolled in the USC-sponsored Community School of the Performing Arts, studying theory with Marienne Uszler and piano with John Weisenfluh. In 1975, he entered USC as a composition major where he studied with Robert Linn. Since earning his BM degree, Childs  has received orchestral commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Kronos Quartet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, and the Dorian Wind Quintet.

Early influences included both performers (Herbie Hancock, Keith Emerson, and Chick Corea) and classical composers (Paul Hindemith, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky). Child’s performance career took off after debuting with J.J. Johnson in 1977 and working six years with Freddie Hubbard in the late seventies and early eighties. His first solo release in 1988, Take For Example, This..., was just the first of four critically acclaimed albums for Windham Hill Jazz, followed by Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), His April Touch (1992), and Portrait of a Player (1993). With encouragement from label founder Chick Corea,  Child’s released I’ve Known Rivers on Stretch/GRP (now Stretch/Concord) in 1995, followed by The Child Within on Shanachie in 1996.  

 
In 2001, Billy Child’s founded his Jazz-Chamber Ensemble to fill a desire develop a sound based in part on Laura Nyro’s collaborations with Alice Coltrane (“Christmas and the Beads of Sweat”) and the merging of jazz and classical genres, with core instrumentation of  piano, acoustic guitar, harp, bass and woodwinds. Sometimes the core group is augmented by string quartet, woodwind quintet, or both. To date, Childs has recorded two volumes with the ensemble –the Grammy-nominated Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006, Lunacy) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010, ArtistShare) –that evolved through rehearsal, performance, and recording over a ten-year period. Two of his three Grammy awards (for Best Instrumental Composition) come from this project, for “Into the Light” from Lyric and “The Path Among the Trees” from Autumn: In Moving Pictures.

As an arranger, Childs has arranged, orchestrated and conducted for Dianne Reeves' The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, which won the 2002 Grammy for "Best Jazz Vocal CD." He’s also arranged for Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, Michael Bublé, David Foster, Phil Ramone and Claudia Acuña.

Steve Wilson©Andrea Canter

Dubbed a “musician’s musician,” alto/soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson has played sideman on over 100 recordings with such artists as Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Don Byron, Bill Stewart, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller. The Virginia native began formal sax studies at 12, continuing at Virginia Commonwealth University where he studied or played with Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. After moving to New York, he was part of the OTB (Out of the Blue) Sextet and toured with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. He has  toured with many of the top bands in jazz, including the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Mulgrew Miller’s Wingspan, Buster Williams’ Something More and Christian McBride’s Inside Straight; he leads his quartet, Steve Wilson’s Generations, Wilsonian Grain, and plays in duo with Lewis Nash.  

Bassist Hans Glawischnig was born in Graz, Austria, the son of a pianist/educator. He enrolled in the Academy of Music in Graz as a violin student at age six, switching to electric bass at 13 and then to the acoustic bass, which became his primary instrument. After finishing high school, Glawischnig attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. In 1995, he was invited join Bobby Watson's Urban Renewal band on the recommendation of fellow student Stefon Harris; a stint with Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau soon followed. The following year he joined Ray Barretto’s New World Spirit Ensemble, and subsequently worked with Paquito D'Riviera, Stefon Harris, Claudio Roditi, Phil Woods, Claudia Acuna, Mark Murphy, and David Sanchez, among others. As a leader, Glawischnig has released Common Ground (2004), Panorama (2008) and his brand new disc, Jahira (2012).

Eric Harland©Andrea Canter

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