Bay Area Pianist Charles Chen Documents Jazz History on The Long Way Home

Félix Lemerle, Charles Chen, Bill Crow, Steve Little (Courtesy of OffBeat Exposure)

Bay Area pianist Charles Chen turns to jazz history and intergenerational memory on The Long Way Home, a forthcoming quartet release set for June 19 on Cellar Music Group. Recorded in New York, the album pairs a program of standards with spoken-word reflections on oral history from two musicians whose careers date back to the mid-20th century: bassist Bill Crow, now 98, and drummer Steve Little, 91.

For Chen, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the project extends beyond repertory performance. The album places living jazz history at the center of the session, documenting firsthand accounts from musicians who worked alongside Stan Getz, Marian McPartland, Gerry Mulligan, Claude Thornhill, and Duke Ellington.

Recorded on August 11, 2025, at Bunker Studio in New York, the session features Chen alongside Crow, Little, and Paris-born guitarist Félix Lemerle. The album’s instrumental portion moves through material associated with the swing and bebop traditions, including Oscar Pettiford’s “Laverne Walk,” Cole Porter’s “Dream Dancing,” “Squatty Roo,” and an Ellington medley built around “Prelude to a Kiss,” “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good),” and “Sophisticated Lady.”

Chen has steadily built a presence in the Bay Area jazz scene through performances at venues such as Yoshi’s Oakland and San Jose Jazz events. A first-place winner in the 2019 Jazz Search West competition, he has also performed and recorded with musicians including Randy Brecker, Billy Drummond, Bob Sheppard, Roy McCurdy, and Peter Washington.

What distinguishes The Long Way Home from a conventional standards session is its second half. Rather than closing with music alone, the album shifts to spoken recollections by Crow and Little, preserving stories from an era when jazz musicians moved fluidly among clubs, orchestras, television studios, and recording sessions.

Little discusses his late-career work with Ellington, including sessions for ...And His Mother Called Him Bill, and recalls the New York union scene, when thousands of musicians gathered weekly for work. He also reflects on leaving the road after a difficult winter engagement with Dave Brubeck and on building a long studio and television career that included work with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Sesame Street productions.

Crow’s segments chart another path through jazz history. His memories cover collaborations with Getz, Mulligan, and McPartland, as well as encounters with Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Miles Davis. Chen frames these spoken tracks not as bonus material but as integral to the album’s core purpose: preserving the voices and lived experiences of musicians whose careers are directly connected to jazz’s modern lineage.

The title itself carries autobiographical weight. In the album’s liner notes, Chen recounts how Crow survived a teenage car accident after driving off a cliff late at night, landing in a blackberry bush before continuing on his way. The story becomes a metaphor for endurance, continuity, and the long arc of a life in music.

That momentum continues even now. Chen notes that after the recording session ended, Crow packed up his bass and drove two hours to another performance in Connecticut.

At 98, he is still on the road.