Charles Chen Album Release
Pianist Charles Chen celebrates the release of his album The Long Way Home with an intimate quartet featuring clarinetist and saxophonist Nathan Tokunaga, bassist Nico Martinez, and drummer Brian Fishler. Chen's new recording, released June 19 on Cellar Music Group, pairs jazz standards with oral history — a unique concept that documents two nonagenarian jazz veterans alongside the music itself.
The Long Way Home features Chen with 98-year-old bassist Bill Crow and 91-year-old drummer Steve Little, both still holding down a weekly residency at Smalls Jazz Club in New York. The album captures timeless standards from Oscar Pettiford to Sam Cooke to Duke Ellington, followed by spoken remembrances where Crow and Little share stories from their decades working with jazz legends including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Stan Getz.
Chen brings impressive jazz credentials as a winner of the 2019 Jazz Search West competition who has performed and recorded with Randy Brecker, Billy Drummond, Bob Sheppard, and Roy McCurdy. His debut album Charles, Play! was featured as one of DownBeat Magazine's Best Albums of 2024. Expect to hear mainstream jazz and post-bop with influences spanning from hard bop to soul, drawing on the pianistic traditions of Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, and Gene Harris.
Tokunaga, a 2026 YoungArts winner in jazz clarinet, specializes in early jazz traditions from the 1920s-1940s and has performed at prestigious venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. His classical approach to swing and traditional jazz adds distinctive textures to the group. Martinez brings a Latin fusion element, blending jazz with Colombian folk and flamenco in what he calls "culturally diverse and energetic performances." The combination creates an intriguing musical conversation between jazz traditions and contemporary voices.
The show offers a rare opportunity to hear material from Chen's conceptual new album while experiencing the chemistry of his working quartet. With Chen's reputation for thoughtful composition and his collaborators' diverse musical backgrounds, expect an evening that honors jazz history while exploring fresh interpretations of classic material.