Search - Billy Childs :: Child Within

Best Childs Mainstream Jazz Date Yet

joseph salvador | Manila | 02/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I presume that this album from a relatively unknown recording company, Shanachie Records, does not sell too well. What a disgrace! This album is Billy Childs in his prime! And the sound is marvelous! The tracks are a magnificent showcase of Billy Childs' jazz piano technique, which features his trademark thick and jagged comping and unpredictable piano phrasings. Billy Childs, I find, comps like no other and his lines are as inventive as Herbie Hancock's. His sidemen here are from the top brass, with the likes of Dave Holland, Terence Blanchard, and Jeff Watts.One reason, I suppose, is that Childs is sometimes associated with New Age music. This is not one such album, as the album title and cover photo might suggest! Try listening to a "wild" version of the usually-played-at-midnight Lover Man; you'll have to turn the music down before your neighbor starts hollering about Blanchard's trumpet playing! All tracks are intense 4/4 purist jazz pieces, except for 1 meditative solo piano piece. Get this CD and re-live his Freddie Hubbard bop days!"