BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Jazz Center will present Billy Childs, one of the leading pianists, composers, and arrangers of this era, on Saturday, May 6, at 8 p.m.
He will perform with his quartet including saxophonist Dayna Stephens, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Ari Hoenig, according to a news release.
Childs has earned 13 Grammy nominations and four Grammy awards. He is also the recipient of Chamber Music America's Composer's Grant, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a music award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Several groups have commissioned Childs' orchestral compositions, including the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, and the American Brass Quintet.
Jazz critic Don Heckman writes: “Words fail in an effort to describe the complexities and the subtleties of Childs' musical imagination, which is far-reaching … Childs' works do not simply place genres side by side. Instead they find a common, creative ground reminiscent of Rumi's 'community of spirit.'”
Childs is touring to promote his new release, Rebirth. Instead of performing with a cadre of singers, an orchestra or a string quartet, he is reaching back to his roots, when he performed with J.J. Johnson, Freddie Hubbard, and Joe Henderson.
Of the concept for this new album and tour, Childs says: “I'm revisiting some familiar ground with different musical eyes. My playing is more evolved, now influenced by newer musical trends. You're hearing something on this album that I love doing but that I haven't done a lot of lately: having musical conversations as a member of a group. That's what I love.”