"The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (directed by Gerald Clayton) was filled with future jazz greats ... [including] altoist Kahlil Childs whose interval leaps and explorative solos were reminiscent but not derivative of Eric Dolphy ..." "Kahlil Childs...tenor-saxophonist Ryan Kaplan, and trumpeter Allie Molin joined pianist Christian Sands’ trio to perform his commissioned piece Reflections From The Shore: A Monterey Suite..."
--Scott Yanow
Downbeat (October 2025)
Childs played a 11PM set at SREAD ART in [DETROIT'S] Woodbridge neighborhood. The out-of-the-way gallery is an incubator for young artists in Detroit, and a bare bones one at that. The performance room featured seating for forty, a beat-down and out-of-tune piano, and a marvelous, relaxed vibe where it seemed only cool things could happen. The expectation was solid jazz interpretation, but what came down was quite something else. The set, both in terms of the compositions performed and the virtuosic interpretations of them, was east coast, hard-driving, swinging post bop at its best. Childs' playing was melody driven with clear intent...While so many young musicians play extremely well, the mainstream of them play as they are taught at institutions of higher learning—understanding the language in detail, and often not having a lot to say. Childs ... [plays] fully in the moment, and [has] the wonderful ability to offer something meaningful in the process. [His] love and enthusiasm for the music is obvious, inspiring and hopeful in so many ways.
--Paul Rauch
All About Jazz (September 2025)
"Kahlil Childs is a 15-year-old musician who’s been described as a jazz prodigy and budding star. He heads his band, the Kahlil Childs Quartet..." When asked what is the best advice he has received, Childs said: "The best advice I ever got was from Marshall Hawkins, a legendary bass player who lives near San Diego, and who I got the honor to play with a few times. When I was 12, he said to me, 'You’re going to be a leader, but in order to be a leader, you have to be a great sideman.' For me, that means that you can never have an ego and take up all the airtime. You have to give room to your bandmates to express themselves and have ownership of the music."
--Lisa Deaderick
San Diego Union Tribune (2025)
"When the quartet takes the stage, there’s the usual jazz applause at appropriate times. But there’s something also different, intangible. Childs, 15, addresses the audience with both presence and confidence—dare I say an aura?—that marks him as a leader. It comes through in his playing—alto sax and bass clarinet. His band mates function with him as one unit, each taking solos throughout the set and all commanding attention at the same level.
[There was] polite applause in all the right places...But the standing ovation and roar of approval that follows their set is unusual and encouraging....I got to see these guys on this day, in this moment, and the show has stuck with me. As Queen would say, “It’s a Kind of Magic." LINK TO ARTICLE
-- Spike Steffenhagen
San Diego Reader (2025)
Podcasts
A Long Way from the Block with Anthony Thomas -- 3/29/25
Click the link below to hear an extensive interview of Kahlil by journalist Anthony Thomas covering how Kahlil started in jazz, his relationships with his mentors such as Charles McPherson, Kamau Kenyatta, and Gilbert Castellanos, and his future plans -- namely his goals of relocating to New York and releasing albums as a bandleader.