Building Characters Charles Chen

• 1 Kismet 04:55
• 2 Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior 06:54
• 3 If on a winter's night a traveler 06:46
• 4 Colossus of Rhodes 06:40
• 5 Alice in Wonderland 06:03
• 6 Straw Hat 05:29
• 7 Soph, Aeon of Wisdom 06:25
• 8 Stardust 07:41
• Total Runtime 50:53

Info for Building Characters

Charles Chen's new album features an all-acoustic Horace Silver-esque band with Randy Brecker on trumpet.

Jazz is full of legends – the Duke, the Count, the Lady. We know their names, study their harmonies, and memorize their solos. We listen to their recordings, referencing albums from 1961 at the Village Gate or from Slugs in 1970. We listen to musicians across their lifetimes, following how their musical abilities crescendo or diminish. We hope, by remembering them and passing along their tales, we can understand the geniuses behind the music. These stories keep the music alive. They keep jazz alive.

In this album, I paired jazz legends with other legends that grabbed my attention from fiction, myth, and anime. Using them as inspiration, I wanted to build sonic portraits of these characters, capturing the feel of their stories and their music in my original compositions.

Charles Chen, piano
Randy Brecker, trumpet
Bob Sheppard, tenor saxophone
Lawrence Feldman, tenor saxophone
Mike Richmond, bass
Adam Nussbaum, drums

Charles Chen
is a eighteen year old composer and musician from Winston Churchill High School in Maryland. His music is often focused on aspects of nature evolutions and phenomenons that occur in the world and outer space, ranging from landscape changes to cosmic dramas. Charles seeks to write music where the audience can be in a state of mind that allows them to experience the dynamic atmosphere of the universe. He draws inspiration from composers such as Claude Debussy, Gyorgi Ligeti, Akira Nishimura, Toshio Hosokawa, Kaija Saariaho, etc. Currently, he studies privately with Mr. Yiming Wu and Prof. Wang Lu.

Charles’s music has received recognitions from various competitions including MTNA, Tribeca, The American Prize, DownBeat Student Music Awards, 2 time finalist from ASCAP, and was selected for the 2024 Earshot Readings hosted by the National Arts Centre Orchestra. His work has also been debuted by the May Flower Arts Center in their 2024 MusicON Festival.

As a violinist, Charles currently plays in his high school orchestra and has participated in orchestra programs such as Maryland Classical Youth Orchestra and Young Artists of America. He also plays violin in his high school’s Musicians Club, where they perform concerts for the elderly.

Apart from music, Charles enjoys badminton, traveling, and watching movies.

This album contains no booklet.