| Jazz |
A Young Visionary Reimagines Jazz: Charles Chen’s Sonic Portraits of Legacy and Myth
At just 18 years old, Charles Chen is not your average high school student. A classically trained pianist and composer attending Winston Churchill High School in Maryland, he crafts music that feels far older than he is, layered, sophisticated, and steeped in both jazz tradition and philosophical wonder. His artistic world is shaped by the grand forces of nature, the vast cosmos, and the mysterious evolution of both. But to stop at this biographical sketch would be to miss the true depth of his debut album, a work of quiet ambition and bold, conceptual clarity.
What Chen presents is more than just a collection of jazz compositions; it is a cultural meditation, a kind of musical mythology in motion. The album borrows textures and cadences from classical music, not for ornamentation but as the foundation of a compositional approach that blends reverence and innovation. His creative protocol is as intellectual as it is emotional: “In studying the iconic figures of jazz, from its early days to the present, I began to notice parallels between these musicians and mythological or fictional heroes,” Chen explains. “We listen to them throughout their lives, tracking the arc of their artistry, how it blossoms, wanes, transforms. Telling their stories keeps the music alive. It’s the narrative that breathes life into sound.” That fusion, of storytelling, mythology, and sound, is the philosophical engine behind the album. Yet it nearly never came to be.
Originally, Chen had lined up saxophonist Bob Malach to play on the recording. But just two days before the studio session, Malach canceled. A sudden hernia, the result of years of intense performance, had sent him to the emergency room. “It was a real crisis,” Chen recalls. “But as luck would have it, I was already working in the same studio with Bob Sheppard the day before, on a different project. Months earlier, Sheppard had helped me revise the scores, so he was familiar with the repertoire. I asked him, almost on a whim, if he could step in. He said yes. Shep literally saved the album.”
Portraiture in music is nothing new. From medieval court ballads to Renaissance madrigals to 20th-century jazz suites, artists have long paid homage to those who came before them. What has changed is the level of musical literacy and interpretive nuance with which these portraits are crafted. On that front, Chen is nothing short of exceptional. His compositions offer one of the most incisive reflections on the legacy of 20th-century jazz in recent memory. While the bulk of the album is original material, there are moments of interpretive brilliance, most notably his arrangement of “Alice in Wonderland,” a quiet tribute to the dreamlike sensitivity of Bill Evans and Chick Corea. Chen’s take is full of lush harmonic color, fluttering melodic lines, and a bass underpinning that nods to the elegance and virtuosity of Scott LaFaro.
This is not a record for casual listening. It demands both a fluency in jazz idioms and a familiarity with classical structure. But for those willing to enter its sonic architecture, the reward is immense. Chen’s arrangements are not decorative; they are structural, shaping the emotional and narrative arc of all eight compositions. Rather than indulge in theatrical flourish, he opts for a lighter, more deliberate touch, evoking Red Garland’s economy, Ahmad Jamal’s dynamic control, and Gene Harris’s infectious energy. The album opens with a flourish, bursts into a tenor saxophone solo over shimmering arpeggios, and lands, unexpectedly, on a finale steeped in classical elegance.
In the end, what Chen offers is more than just music. He offers a worldview, a reverence for legacy, a passion for form, and a belief that jazz, like myth, is a living language. Whether this is the beginning of a long discography or just one early chapter remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Charles Chen is an artist of rare promise, whose creative fire is as bright as the constellations that seem to inspire him.
Charles Chen is, unmistakably, one to watch.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 18th 2025
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Musicians :
Charlie Chen (piano)
Randy Brecker (trumpet)
Bob Sheppard and Lawrence Feldman (tenor saxophones)
Mike Richmond (double bass)
Adam Nussbaum (drums)
Tracklist :
Kismet
Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler
Colossus Of Rhodes
Alice In Wonderland
Straw Hat
Soph, Aeon Of Wisdom
Stardust