Charles Chen: Building Characters

San Francisco-based pianist and educator Charles Chen returns with Building Characters, his second recording in as many years, and as on his debut album, Charles, Play! (Cellar Music, 2024), he is backed by an all-star supporting cast that includes a front line of trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxophonists Bob Sheppard and Lawrence Feldman. They bolster a sharp and powerful rhythm section consisting of bassist Mike Richmond and drummer Adam Nussbaum.

Missing are the members of Chen's quartet on Charles, Play! (tenor Ralph Moore, bassist Peter Washington, drummer Kenny Washington) but their replacements, to state the obvious, are more than satisfactory. While Chen plays with his usual eloquence and savvy, six of the eight numbers on offer are his original compositions, which are by and large agreeable but rather less than noteworthy. Supplementing them are a curiously laid-back reading of "Alice in Wonderland" and Hoagy Carmichael's enduring masterwork, "Stardust," which closes the album.

Chen raises the curtain with another ballad, his own "Kismet," on which the members of the group are limited to furnishing no more than background phrasings. "Zheng Fei, Fierce Warrior," which follows, intensifies the heat as it allots blowing space for Chen, Brecker, Richmond and one of the tenors while Nussbaum's drum kit amplifies the fireworks. Two more of Chen's decorous charts, "If on a Winter's Night O Traveler" (splendid solos by Chen, Brecker and either Sheppard or Feldman) and the lyrical "Colossus of Rhodes," lead to "Alice in Wonderland" whose muted approach seemed perhaps more inspiring on paper.

Chen's "Straw Hat" dances neatly forward behind admirable solos by Brecker, Chen and one of the tenors before Brecker coolly introduces the last of Chen's works, the sauntering "Soph, Aeon of Wisdom." Chen is typically well-spoken on "Stardust," which ends the session on a tranquil yet positive note. On the one hand, Building Characters is a largely pleasing and well-played second outing; on the other, a step or so removed from Chen's admirable debut recording.

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