Triumvirate marks Billy Childs’ first trio recording in 25 years, channeling the chemistry of his touring band into an intimate reworking of early compositions shaped by lineage and forward motion.
Billy Childs' Triumvirate arrives as a reminder that some artists spend a lifetime mastering one musical language, while Childs has mastered two. Equally revered as a classical composer and a deeply swinging jazz pianist, he has built a career that resists categories, backed by six Grammy Awards, seventeen nominations, and commissions from some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and ensembles.
That rare dual fluency has carried Childs from Carnegie Hall and Disney Concert Hall to ambitious projects that fuse jazz and classical traditions, including his Grammy-winning Jazz Chamber Music recordings and a celebrated tribute to Laura Nyro. Since joining Mack Avenue in 2017, he has refocused on straight-ahead jazz, earning a Grammy for Rebirth and continuing the arc with Acceptance and The Winds of Change, all built around a core quartet.
Triumvirate pares that approach down even further. It’s Childs’ first trio album in 25 years, a format he loves but has rarely returned to due to his deep commitments as a composer. For the session, he enlisted bassist Matt Penman and drummer Ari Hoenig, longtime collaborators with each other whose shared intuition and elasticity immediately clicked. “They both make music in a way that elevates a trio,” Childs says. “I knew I needed to record with these people.”
The repertoire blends rediscovered early compositions with standards that shaped Childs’ musical life. Pieces like “One Fleeting Instant” and “Like Father Like Son” revisit his Windham Hill years with fresh urgency, while “Heroes” highlights the trio’s restraint and sensitivity. The album’s second half nods to masters including Benny Golson and Thelonious Monk, before closing with a stripped-down duo take on “Flamenco Sketches,” leaving space for quiet conversation between piano and bass.
A triumvirate implies shared authority, and that balance defines this record. Childs, Penman, and Hoenig listen as intently as they lead, shaping the music in real time. The result feels less like a return to the trio format than a reaffirmation of why it still matters.