Child Within

Billy Childs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 20, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shanachie
• ASIN: B000000DRB
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,058 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Childs Mainstream Jazz Date Yet, February 3, 2000

By 

joseph salvador (Manila) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Within (Audio CD)

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!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Enjoyable and Deserves Reissue!, July 6, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Child Within (Audio CD)

I must have been sleeping when this was originally released, back in 1996; so must have a lot of other people, for I don't remember ever seeing anything about it in the press. (Maybe there was, but I slept through that, too.) At any rate, if you can find this CD (I found my copy by perusing the 75% off "red-dot" bin at Border's, and it was the only copy there), buy it, even if you have to pay full price. Why? Consider the band that pianist Childs has assembled: Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Dave Holland on bass, Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, Steve Wilson on alto and soprano sax, Ravi Coltrane on tenor sax, and Luis Bonilla on trombone. That's a ton of talent, folks!

Holland and Watts deserve special mention, because they lay down a foundation as solid as rock for the rest of the musicians to build upon, and build upon it they do. Childs plays with imagination, energy, and taste, never seeming to show off, but continually coming up with the right notes at the right time. His solo-piano version of Monk's "Pannonica" is a special treat, and his work within the ensemble, whether soloing or comping, is well-nigh flawless. Blanchard too deserves mention, contributing some tasty licks on trumpet, occasionally from what seems to be off-microphone. The sound is not quite first-class, but it does not get in the way of musical enjoyment for the listener.

Presenting a nice mix of standards and originals over its more than 70 minutes, The Child Within is one of the most enjoyable jazz albums I have heard in quite some time, and I surely hope there are still some copies to be found out there by those who appreciate top-flight jazz, and if they are selling at 75% off, it truly is a wonderful world, Mr. Armstrong.