Billy Childs Quartet at Jazz Alley

Billy Childs Quartet
Jazz Alley
Seattle WA
May 2, 2023

The crowd was not large upon arriving at Seattle's landmark club, Jazz Alley. At first, one would surmise that this was surprising, considering the career of pianist/composer Billy Childs. After all, he has been the recipient of five Grammy awards, from thirteen nominations. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2013. As an active composer/arranger, he has bridged the jazz and classical worlds in such a way that he was often referred to as the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland. His talents had led to collaborations with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet and the Detroit Symphony. Heady stuff from the Los Angeles based Childs. His two-night run however, felt underappreciated given the half-filled room.

A deeper dive into his jazz history, and in particular, his history as a live jazz performer in Seattle, revealed some answers. His two-day Jazz Alley stop was his first as a leader in the Emerald City. He had appeared at Jazz Alley alright—but not at the current configuration in Belltown. He had appeared at the original jazz bistro iteration of the club in the city's University District, and in the current room when the stage was in a different location and housed half as many guests. All of those appearances were as a sideman for Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis and Joe Henderson. Clearly, he hadn't developed an audience as a leader in Seattle.

Childs' brief time at Windham Hill Records in the late 1980s, and extensive work outside of the jazz mainstream also may have given area listeners an incomplete view of his career, including his work as a hard bop pianist. That prowess earned him the 2015 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Rebirth (Mack Avenue, 2017), was a return to his hard bop style of the seventies, a time when he played outside the dominion of his own compositions, playing freely as a result.

Childs led a quartet to the venerable Seattle nightspot featuring trumpeter and fellow Mack Avenue artist, Sean Jones. Veteran bassist Hans Glawischnig and impressive young drummer, Christian Euman rounded out the quartet. The ninety-minute set featured Childs' challenging modern jazz compositions from The Winds of Change (Mack Avenue, 2023). The music was accented with the brilliant soloing of all members of the quartet, including the leader's orchestral, athletic contributions. Each of his solos throughout the evening came off like an epic narrative with grand dynamics. His fluid, quicksilver runs and chordal insertions bore remnants of the legacy of McCoy Tyner. He was equally poignant in tender moments, and those of driving insistency.

The quartet worked their way down the evening's set list in the same natural order in which Childs presented the material on The Winds of Change.. "The Great Western Loop," written in reference to the four major trail systems in the American West, was one of the aforementioned epic narratives. Improvised solos emerged out of the thicket of Child's small-group orchestrations. The album's title track bore very different traits, as this tribute to the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove saw Jones play the piece as the lone soloist behind the orchestral support of the rhythm section. His tonal quality was eerily similar to that of the tune's subject, with a visual quality that spoke to Hargrove's legacy.

While the complexity of the music and attention to compositional detail may speak to the often applied west coast stereotype, Jones' playing brought that east coast fire to the proceedings, straight from the trumpeter's home digs in Baltimore. Within each piece performed, Jones' improvised solos were the pearls within the density of the music. In speaking to audience members before and after the performance, it seemed as many fans had come to see Jones as had for the leader, Childs. It speaks to the leader's skill in choosing the best musicians to express his particular brand of jazz composition.

"In Carson's Eyes," an ode to Childs' son, was performed as a trio piece, with trumpeter Jones on the sideline. The emotive playing of the trio was highlighted by Glawischnig's riveting solo, and Childs' tender, melodic brilliance.

"Master of the Game" was the piece where the band stretched out fully, with longer, scintillating, swinging solos gracing the Jazz Alley crowd. The quartet's interpretation of Chick Corea's "Crystal Silence" went in the opposite direction. The only offering of the evening outside of Childs' compositional realm was approached as a ballad, with the leader opening with a long piano intro. Jones played the melody in hushed tones, with Glawischnig playing in and around the melody in elegant fashion. The bassist's tone was wooden and purely resonant, falling elegantly back into support.

In short, the quartet's playing was incendiary, whether working their way through Childs' compositional labyrinth, or soloing freely within the flowing harmonic framework those tunes provide. Those who attended one or both of the two sets performed, came away more than satisfied, if not thrilled. Childs for his part was very personable, and conversed comfortably with the audience. It gave the evening a very intimate feel, and provided insight into the music of this brilliant, complex artist who at last had made his way to Seattle as a leader. He clearly has gathered the tools and wisdom gifted him from masters like Hubbard and Henderson, and applied them to his place in the jazz universe. One would suspect that his next pass through town will see a larger crowd, as word of these two impressive sets circulate in the Seattle jazz community and beyond. One can only hope.