The fact that pianist Charles Chen has become a ubiquitous presence across the Bay Area doesn’t make his gigs any less arresting.
Performing often for swing dances, Chen is also an improviser who can turn familiar standards into two-fisted adventures. A computer programmer by day, he possesses an unusually sweeping command of jazz’s 20th-century evolution, an understanding he’s tested with some of the survivors who helped propel that trajectory.
His latest album, The Long Way Home, features the nonagenarian New York team of bassist Bill Crow (98) and drummer Steve Little (91), though they haven’t been on hand for a spate of Chen’s recent CD-release concerts in the Bay Area. At Piedmont Piano Company July 12, he played a consistently inspired set backed by the Bay Area tandem of Juilliard-trained bassist Nico Martinez and drummer Brian Fishler, with Paris-reared New York guitarist Félix Lemerle reprising his chief-interlocutor role on the album.
Lemerle was responsible for connecting Chen with Crow and Little, but instead of focusing on vintage tunes from The Long Way Home, they delved into the repertoire from an album they’d recorded the day before (with 89-year-old drummer Roy McCurdy) exploring the music of Detroit guitar great Kenny Burrell. Turning 95 at the end of the month, Burrell has been off the scene for more than a decade; the set was a potent reminder of his deep catalog as a composer.
Blues, ballads, bossas, and burners — Burrell contributed near-standards in each category, like the sleekly swinging “Lyresto,” from his 1957 album with John Coltrane. The tender tone poem “Listen to the Dawn” elicited some particularly sublime interplay between Lemerle and Chen, whose crisp articulation made the most of Piedmont Piano’s Fazioli.
Lemerle’s tone, warm, fat and, round, offered a pleasing contrast. Playing a Gibson archtop guitar through a vintage amp, he’s clearly absorbed Burrell’s penchant for graceful concision, like on an atmospheric version of “Soul Lament,” a piece that deployed the chord progression later made iconic in Monty Norman’s “James Bond Theme.”
The quartet didn’t ignore the album being celebrated, offering a crisp rendition of the opening track, Oscar Pettiford’s “Laverne Walk,” and a forcefully swinging take on the standard “You Turned the Tables on Me.” But Chen and Lemerle have clearly moved on to their next project, highlighting the contributions of an elder master. In the case of Crow and Little, career sidemen who never sought out leadership situations, the spotlight catches jazz lives that are easy to overlook. Burrell, one of the most prolific guitarists of the post-World War II era, is another matter entirely.
Surprisingly few projects are devoted to his music. The Japanese guitarist Naoto Suzuki released a 2024 album covering the songs from Burrell’s classic 1959 record A Night at the Vanguard, and last month French guitarist Bruno Bongarçon released Be Yourself – Looking at Kenny Burrell, which reimagines his 1971 album God Bless the Child. Chen and Lemerle gleaned tunes from throughout his long career, and the well is still full.
The show closed with an appropriately righteous rendition of Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” but Chen wasn’t through for the night. A BART ride from Uptown Oakland to San Francisco's Hayes Valley led to his second show at Mr. Tipple's, with guitarist Nick Rossi's Jazzopaters, a stellar nine-piece group dedicated to Duke Ellington’s small-group sessions from the 1930s and ‘40s. One of the highlights was “Dance of the Goon,” a piece Chen transcribed from the 1939 recording by Ellington alto sax star Johnny Hodges.
While Lemerle is back in New York City, Chen plays with a quartet led by 19-year-old clarinet phenomenon Nathan Tokunaga July 18 at Oakland’s Sound Room and Aug. 15 at Bird & Beckett Books and Records in Glen Park.
