Billy Childs - Twilight Is Upon Us (1989)

Billy Childs' second CD as a leader puts as much emphasis on his composing and arranging talents as his skills as a pianist. There is a lot of variety in Childs' eight originals which manage to be both adventurous and sometimes fairly accessible. Childs, who utilizes a synthesizer on three of the numbers, varies the instrumentation on each cut, often featuring the underrated talent Bob Sheppard (on tenor, soprano and flute). It was clear even at this fairly early stage that Billy Childs was on his way to developing an original voice.