NEW RELEASES : **** BILLY CHILDS “His April Touch”<i> Windham Hill Jazz</i>

Childs--whose sideman roles have included several years with Hubbard in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and appearances on many albums, such as the latest by clarinetist Eddie Daniels on the GRP label--here heads his third and most adventurous date.

Except for a fast trio run-through of McCoy Tyner’s “Four by Five,” these are all Childs originals. They reveal his ambitious and often successful attempts to establish himself as a serious composer. The serene, impressionistic title tune, with its mood and tempo shifts, achieves a classic beauty with the help of the versatile Bob Sheppard on soprano sax (elsewhere he plays alto, tenor and flute).

Childs’ most ambitious writing finds three horns intricately interwoven on “Miles to Go Before I Sleep.” Throughout, though, his role as an imaginative improvising pianist remains central to the success of this well-conceived project.