Charlie Kirchen Trio

Charlie Kirchen is a bass player and bandleader living in the Chicago area. Charlie moved to town in 2006 to attend Northwestern University and has since been given the opportunity to play and perform with some of the city’s finest musicians including Mike Allemana, Chris Madsen, Jon Deitemyer, Ron Perrillo, Doug Stone, Mikel Avery, Joel Spencer, Tim Daisy, and John Moulder.

The Charlie Kirchen Trio was formed in the winter of 2009. The band features Mike Lebrun on tenor saxophone, Charlie Kirchen on bass, and Max Krucoff on drums and is dedicated to performing Charlie’s original music. The band seeks to explore the binary between structure and freedom, between composition and open improvisation. The chord-less instrumentation of the band provides the perfect context for the group to stretch its material to its rhythmic and harmonic limits, while those explorations are grounded by the composed nature of the group’s repertoire. The Charlie Kirchen Trio debuted at Evanston’s Café Ambrosia to a large and enthusiastic audience and has since gone on to create a local following by playing in venues in Evanston such as Bill’s Blues and by organizing performances in basements and living rooms throughout town. Furthermore, the individual members of the group have established their reputations and cultivated a following by performing with various bands in Chicago venues such as the Green Mill, Andy’s Jazz Club, Uncommon Ground, the Tonic Room, and the Heartland Café. The Charlie Kirchen Trio is dedicated to exploring the art of improvisation at the highest level.