Charles Chen is a San Francisco Bay Area pianist who has performed or recorded with notable musicians such as Randy Brecker, Billy Drummond, Bob Sheppard, Roy McCurdy, Adam Nussbaum, Mike Richmond, Ralph Moore, Peter Washington, and Kenny Washington. He has played at Yoshi's, San Jose Jazz Festival, and Freight and Salvage. In 2019, he won first place at the Jazz Search West competition. Charles leads a trio and has performed internationally in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. His debut album, Charles, Play!, was featured as one of the Best Albums of 2024 in Downbeat Magazine.

Charles is also a passionate educator and his students have gone to the best music schools in the nation with full scholarships (Juilliard, MSM, Berklee, NEC) and won a variety of awards (YoungArts distinctions, all-state band placements, and first place for arranging and performance in the Charles Mingus competition).

He serves as the historian of the South Bay Traditional Jazz Society and also an admin to Jazzcord, a popular jazz discord community with over 7000 members. In both groups, he writes historical essays and album reviews regularly.