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Charles "Poogie" Bell was born in 1961 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Charles Bell Sr. and Alice Pittrell. His father was a jazz pianist, band leader for the Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet. As an infant, Bell regularly watched his father’s band rehearse. He made his concert debut with his father’s band at age two and a half, playing at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh and in 1966 he performed with Pearl Bailey on The Mike Douglas Show and other TV shows as well as concerts during that period. Bell moved to New York with his family, where his father took up a music professorship. In New York, Bell continued to be immersed in the world of music. His father regularly rehearsed at home with Ron Carter, Richard Davis, Ornette Coleman, Max Roach and Mary Lou Williams, and the bassist Paul Chambers was a neighbor. While growing up in New York, Bell was friends with Omar Hakim, Weldon Irvine, Marcus Miller, Lenny White and Bernard Wright, Bobby Broom, Victor Bailey, and many other great musicians in and around NYC.