Jazz pianist Charles Chen’s ‘Long Way’ album embraces old and young

Fremont software engineer and jazz pianist Charles Chen, 38, releases his third album 'The Long Way Home' featuring nonagenarian rhythm section Bill Crow, 98, and Steve Little, 91, to honor unsung jazz sidemen. The album blends vintage standards with interviews of the elder musicians, while Chen also performs with 19-year-old reed player Nathan Tokunaga, bridging generations in jazz.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...There is no generation gap in the musical world of Charles Chen. The Fremont software engineer and entrepreneur has carved out a bustling career as a jazz pianist, a realm where children of the Great Depression share the bandstand with Gen Z teenagers. In the coming weeks he’s celebrating the release of his third album, “The Long Way Home,” a quartet project recorded in New York City with the nonagenarian rhythm section tandem of bassist Bill Crow, 98, and drummer Steve Little, 91. “It’s a record about the people who built jazz and never got famous for it,” said Chen, 38. “Bill and Steve are on some of the most famous albums of all time. Bill has played with just about everybody in the history of jazz, but you wouldn’t know who they were because they were sidemen.” Crow, 98, and Little, 91, won’t be on hand for the album release gigs June 28 at Mr. Tipple’s in San Francisco and July 12 at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company. They don’t travel much these days and hold down a long-standing Sunday residency at Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, where they serve as the house rhythm section for the afternoon jam session. Meanwhile, Chen also performs in two shows at Mr. Tipple’s on July 10, led by New York guitarist Félix Lemerle, who’s also featured on “The Long Way Home.” He and Chen are joined by New York bassist David Wong and Los Angeles drummer Roy McCurdy, whose induction into the nonagenarian club comes November 28. Much like Crow and Little, McCurdy played with a succession of jazz giants on classic recordings, including the epochal tenor saxophone encounter between Sonny Rollins and his primary influence, Coleman Hawkins on 1963’s “Sonny Meets Hawk ” , and Cannonball Adderley’s crossover 1966 hit “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” which was released near the start of his 11-year tenure with the alto sax star. For Chen, the opportunity to perform and rub shoulders with jazz elders is an essential part of the music’s allure, an experience he shares with listeners. The first half of “The Long Way Home” features the quartet swinging elegantly through a set of vintage standards, while the second half consists of Chen’s interviews with Crow and Little, divided into one-to-three minute tracks focusing on particular bands and situations. Little describes joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1967 and discovering there was no written drum parts, meaning he had to figure out what to play via recordings or his previous experiences hearing the band. He arrived just in time to record the classic memorial album for arranger, composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn, “… And His Mother Called Him Bill.” Crow’s stories are better known, as he published a popular autobiography “From Birdland to Broadway,” which followed “Jazz Anecdotes,” an anthology of stories shared by musicians for his column in the monthly magazine of New York Musicians’ Union Local 802. Lemerle introduced Chen to Crow and Little, who he met at one of his first gigs in New York City after moving from his native Paris. “I knew Little from Ellington recordings and his feel sounded so much like Papa Jo Jones,” Lemerle recalled, referring to the seminal swing-era drummer for the Count Basie Orchestra. “I was amazed to be playing with him. He’s in his 90s and still carrying a drum set in the New York subway when he needs to. He’s got so much energy.” At Piedmont Piano on June 28, Chen plays with a quartet featuring 19-year-old reed player Nathan Tokunaga. Home for the summer after his freshman year studying jazz at the New School in New York and gigging regularly around the Big Apple , Tokunaga is also featuring Chen on a number of his own dates, including July 18 at the Sound Room in Oakland and Aug. 15 at Bird & Beckett Books and Records in San Francisco. “My calendar this summer is a lot of Nathan,” Chen said. “But you can still hear me play with a lot of the top swing bands,” like saxophonist Sean Krazit’s Juniper Jazz Band, which plays the Aug. 8 Lindy Night as part of the four-day swing dance conclave Swingtacular at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame. Whatever the setting or ensemble, Chen’s rhythmic agility and wide-spectrum facility with a century of jazz idioms makes him an inspiring accompanist. “He’s got a lot of energy and great drive,” Lemerle said. “The amount of projects he has is incredibly impressive.” A decade into his musical career, Chen is just getting started. Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com. CHARLES CHEN With Charles Chen Quartet: 6 and 7:45 p.m. June 28 at Mr. Tipple’s in San Francisco; $15-$30; mrtipplessf.com; 5 p.m. July 12 at Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland; $30-$35; piedmontpiano.com. With Felix Lemerle Quartet: 6 and 7:30 p.m. July 10 at Mr. Tipple’s in San Francisco; $15-$30; mrtipplessf.com With Nathan Tokunaga Quartet: 7:30 p.m. July 18 at The Sound Room in Oakland; $25; www.soundroom.org; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15 at Bird & Beckett Books and Records in San Francisco; $20; birdbeckett.com