Grammy winner Billy Childs and his quartet perform at The Myrna Loy in Helena.
Legendary pianist and multi-Grammy Award winning composer Billy Childs will play The Myrna Loy at 7:30 Friday, Jan. 31, with his jazz quartet.
With an illustrious music career spanning more than four decades, Childs revisits his roots in this performance with “unfettered, unpretentious” jazz.
“For the last seven years, I’ve been recording for Mack Avenue, a label that was founded in Detroit, and is now based out of LA,” says Childs. “Before that, I was doing lofty projects – chamber stuff, strings, phonics – but I wanted to get back to how I started – small group jazz.”
Billy Childs released his first album back in 1988 on Windham Hill’s Jazz label to much acclaim, but started gaining notoriety more for his composition work, chamber jazz ensembles, and award-winning arrangements for artists like Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Flemming, Chris Botti, and more.
“I was getting a lot of recognition for what I was doing, an amalgam of classical and jazz, but people didn’t realize the genesis of that was my Windham Hill stuff.”
“It had been a long time since I put out just a jazz album,” says Childs. “I wanted people to hear those songs, put through the lens of where I’m at now.”
Of the three albums to result in these past years of recording, two have garnered Grammy nominations, with “Winds of Change” taking home the 2024 Grammy for “Best Jazz Instrumental Album.”
Childs has been traveling for the past year, playing the music from these albums with his quartet. Lenard Simpson, the quartet’s saxophonist, was a fellow at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz several years ago, when Childs was a mentor and heard him play.
“I said, ‘Holy sh**, this guy can really play!’ I started using him on gigs and we’ve been playing together ever since.”
Simpson, who has since moved to Chicago and is one of the city’s most sought-after saxophone players, will travel to Helena for this performance.
Unprompted, Childs recalled previously playing The Myrna Loy, remembering with a laugh the auditorium that was housed in an old jail. When asked his favorite place to play, he remarked, “I don’t play for the city I’m in, I play for the people in my midst.”
“I could play in Dubuque, Iowa, or Muncie, Indiana, Chicago, New York, Tokyo – it doesn’t matter. I love playing music with people who will listen, who want the music. No city has the patent on that.”
Helena audiences will undoubtedly bring the enthusiasm for Childs and his world-class quartet, which is rounded out by Ari Hoenig on drums and Matt Penman on bass.
Tickets are $35. Call or visit The Myrna Loy box office at 406-443-0287, 15 N. Ewing or online at themyrnaloy.com.