JAZZ REVIEW : Intimate Night With Billy Childs’ Quartet Is Positively Electric

Billy Childs’ quartet juiced-up Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Saturday with original compositions sparked by Childs’ trio of electronic keyboards and electric bassist Jimmy Johnson.

Childs stimulates soloists with his winding paths of chordal and rhythmic changes. His compositional style, and some of his keyboard technique, recalls Herbie Hancock’s acoustic work of 20 years ago, and Hancock’s influence was readily apparent this night.

But Childs showed that his writing style is denser, and his emotive way at the keyboard had less of the intellectual distance that Hancock’s spare treatments gave to his tunes. Childs’ recordings have used electronics only as a way to add color to his music. At times during this performance, they took center stage.

The night’s biggest disappointment was the size of the crowd: The hall was filled to only about half its 299-seat capacity during the first set. Those who did show were treated to watching the band in surroundings that seemed even more intimate because of the empty seats. (Childs commented that he felt as if he were playing in his living room for friends.)

The group’s opening number, “Mount Olympus,” is based on a late-’60s Hancock composition, “The Egg.” The keyboardist set the pace on electric piano with a ringing solo that featured pointed, upper-octave pounds echoed by Johnson’s bass. Saxophonist Bob Sheppard’s rich tone on tenor suggested rugged grandeur before making a steep, exciting climb. After concluding the piece, Childs demonstrated its connection to Hancock’s composition by moving to acoustic piano, an act that added to the evening’s feeling of intimacy.

Hancock’s presence was felt again during a version of Herbie’s “Sly,” a funk number that balances a tough riff with passages of warm beauty. Sheppard, on soprano, broke glistening runs with bouts of high-pitched nagging while Mike Baker’s fidgety hi-hat claps propelled Childs through an electric solo that was plump with block chords.

Baker’s presence was strong throughout the set. The drummer has improved greatly during his association with Childs and showed that he isn’t afraid to take chances when things get intense. He played rough with the timekeeping chores, demonstrating a punchy way with the cymbals while rolling mightily across the changes. At times, the drummer should have shown more discretion and toned down his attack. He dominated Childs’ “Twilight Is Upon Us,” burying the keyboardist’s acoustic solo with cymbal splashes and snare shots.

Sheppard demonstrated a sweet, honey-colored tone on soprano during Childs’ “Quiet Girl.” The keyboardist, like Hancock, showed strong support for the soloist, feeding Sheppard a pretty chord here, or a tense series of notes there, to spur him on to new statements. Sheppard’s tenor solo on the pianist’s ballad “Stay” suffered from under-amplification, a problem that seemed to dog the saxophonist throughout the set.

The night’s most stirring moments came during Childs’ unaccompanied interpretation of “Never Let Me Go.” He pushed the number through blues figures, stride rhythms and smooth melodic passages with classical overtones. Lush, harmonic statements gave way to dissonant fuss and sputter that would magically dissolve back into the theme.

The set closed with the keyboardist’s “Room 101,” a tune inspired by the horror chamber in George Orwell’s novel “1984.” Johnson, avoiding thumb-popping fireworks, provided a strong, level foundation for Sheppard’s most emotional tenor solo of the evening. The number’s frantic pace seemed the perfect setup for Baker to take some time alone, but it was not to be.

It’s apparent that, at 32, Childs has assimilated the lessons he’s learned from Hancock as well as a host of other influential keyboardists and has started to map out his own territory. The results, as he showed Saturday, are positively electric.