Multi-talented composer and jazz pianist Billy Childs was born in 1957 in Los Angeles. Childs was already playing professionally while he earned a composition degree from University of Southern California in 1979. Since then, he has played solo and with several different ensembles around the world. He has played alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Kronos Quartet, Winton Marsalis, and Chris Botti to name a few. Childs has won three Grammy Awards in the past ten years, his most recent being the 2011 Grammy Award for best Best Instrumental Composition The Path Among the Trees (from his ArtistShare release, Autumn: In Moving Pictures Vol. 2). I spoke with Billy over the phone the day before he was to depart sunny LA for New York to grace the East Coast with his wonderful music.

Times Square (TS): You grew up in LA in the 60’s and 70’s, but it looks like you were training pretty seriously, did the so-called “Age of Aquarius” impact your music?

Billy Childs (BC): Age of Aquarius? (Laughs inquisitively)

TS: I’m joking a little; I mostly mean “hippie culture.”

BC: I was born in 1957, so I really grew up in the 60’s and the late 50’s. My sister Kirsten Childs, who lives in New York and is a musical playwright, went to UC Berkeley in the 70’s and was a big influence on me. From her I was very influenced by Laura Nyro, she was a brilliant singer songwriter of the 70’s and she was kind of lumped in that group with Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, but she was different then all of them. She had a lot of jazz and Broadway influences.  A lot of people covered her songs, but when she sang them herself, there was nothing like it.

As far as that is concerned, that culture influenced me, but that’s just one aspect of how I was influenced. I was mostly influenced by jazz, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and other people (pauses)…and fusion. When I was fourteen, the fusion era was really prominent. I was fourteen in 1971, and a lot of these bands like Return to Forever, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters came into fruition then. Also, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, you know, Keith Emerson they influenced me. During that time you had a whole ‘lotta things coming at you.

TS: Can you tell us a little bit about your experience at USC and who your most influential teachers were?

BC: Oh, that’s easy! I was a composition major. My composition teacher Robert Linn was one of the best teachers I’ve had in my life. Also, Marienne Uszler was my theory teacher, and she was extremely influential.

TS: Do you prefer playing solo or in a group?

BC: It doesn’t matter to me. I prefer anything where I can get to what I’m trying to say more easily. If I’ve written a lot of music for a solo instrument or I want to play solo stuff, then I prefer that obviously. There are also many different manifestations of a group. You have ten piece, six piece, quartet, trio, and I’ve even written for an orchestra. As a composer, you don’t really prefer anything; every combination is there to be used as a means of expression.

TS: You’ve played all over the world, what have been some of your favorite places to play?

BC: Well we just played in Paris at a place called Le Duc des Lombardes, and that was one of the most incredible gigs I’ve ever played. And then we also played in Austria at Koncert Music House, and that was also a great gig. Those two, and also Disney Concert Hall in LA or Carnegie Hall, and also the Standard!

TS: Congratulations on your multiple Grammy Awards!! Has becoming “Grammy Winner Billy Childs” changed your perspective at all?

BC: (Laughs) No, no really. (Pauses) Well, you know what the Grammy does—it makes you more credible in other people’s eyes, and I suppose that’s a good thing if you’re trying to get from point A to point B in your career. It’s really nice to receive acknowledgment from your peers that what you do, you do well. Has it made the bucks start rolling in? No.

But for instance, I won my Grammys for my jazz chamber ensemble, which is a creation that I came up with and I completely funded myself that I made happen with no assistance from record labels except for ArtistShare, which is like an online label, kind of a fundraiser. So having done all this myself, it’s really nice to get that kind of recognition. It legitimizes what you did in a way that’s more accepted by the industry

TS: So since this is an interview for TimesSquare.com, what are some of your must-do things in New York City?

BC: I love the jazz clubs. The Standard, Village Vanguard, Smalls, 55 Bar over by Sheridan Square. Oh! The Museum of Natural History, that’s one of my favorite places in the world!

TS: Last question—and it’s a big one: What does music mean to you?

BC: Wow! That could be a potentially long answer. Music is a means of expression. It expresses to the world who I am, and I can understand who someone else is. It is just as essential as breathing air. It’s how I express the inexpressible in words, and I think people have a need to connect in that way: to see someone else’s vision, to see someone else’s view of the world, and that’s one way to do it.

Billy Childs plays the Jazz Standard Thurs-Sun Jan 26-29. For more information, visit www.jazzstandard.net

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