thursdays 6:30 - 10:30

fridays & saturdays 7:00 - 11:00

Pianist Susan Chen began her performing career at the age of 10, appearing as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony. After studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, she embarked on the study of jazz improvisation. She moved to Los Angeles to work with pianist Alan Broadbent and saxophonist Warne Marsh. Her jazz studies continued in New York with master piano teacher Lennie Tristano. She worked regularly in New york jazz clubs in the 1980's.

Susan toured Europe with the Warne Marsh Quartet in 1984, including the Heineken Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, and performances in Paris and cities in Scandivavia. In 1986 she played numerous dates in Holland with the Frank Canino Quartet.

Ms. Chen can be heard on two albums with Marsh: Warne Marsh and Susan Chen and Posthumous on Interplay Records. Down Beat Magazine gave the first recording four stars, stating: "In the gem-like tracks both players are at once foreground and background, each a florid counterpoint to the other, each an equal partner...playing like this demands total trust and concentration."

Cadence Magazine, The American Review of Jazz & Blues, says, "Chen's serenely unequivocal touch summons Hoagy's (Carmichael) fabled bird of singing flight...the linear strength of the pianist's improvisational gift comes through. She has the control and concentration to make the complex dissolve into pellucid clarity."

Since moving to San Francisco in 1990, Ms. Chen has been leading her own trio and playing in the city's foremost nightclubs, including Enrico's, where she was described as "fetchingly boppy" by Herb Caen in his column of March 25, 1994. Chen is hailed in Coda Magazine as "one talented lady of the piano."

Susan has performed with her trio at Harris' Restaurant for the past several years. In a recent review, the Examiner's Bill Citara writes of Harris', "Lights are low, music is soft...I like the spacious cocktail lounge, mural of San Francisco city scenes and low-key live jazz."