For those unaware, Billy Childs has announced his latest album, The Winds of Change (out March 17th via Mack Avenue Music Group).

In his third release with Mack Avenue, the Grammy-winning pianist, composer and arranger is joined by an all-star quartet consisting of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade.

I have been doing all of these lofty projects, chamber things, symphonic things I wanted to just get back to being a jazz pianist, Childs says. Fortunately, these extraordinary musicians find my music interesting enough that they want to be a part of it.

1. The Great Western Loop
2. The Winds of Change
3. The End of Innocence
4. Master of the Game
5. Crystal Silence
6. The Black Angel
7. I Thought I Knew

This beautifully ambient and magnificently sculptured new recording, which includes five new original compositions, opens on the spirited The Great Western Loop and the emphatically cultured, titular The Winds of Change, and then brings us the veritably sparkling The End of Innocence.

Up next is one of my own personal favorites from the new album, the playful Master of the Game, which is itself backed by a unique arrangement of Chick Corea’s Crystal Silence, an animated take on Kenny Barron’s The Black Angel, the musical experience closing on the rather luxurious I Thought I Knew.

The music was inspired by film noir; great film composers like Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann and John Williams; and nostalgia for the Los Angeles of Childs’ youth.

Official Website