Charles Burrell
Charles Burrell has enjoyed an outstanding career as a bassist for the Denver Symphony Orchestra and is also considered a master jazz bassist; one of the few musicians to have mastered both genres. Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1920, Burrell was raised in Depression-era Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Denverado, the daughter of an A.M.E. minister from Denver, Colorado, provided inspiration and direction despite the family's poverty.
In grade school, Burrell excelled in music. When he was twelve, he heard the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under renowned conductor Pierre Monteux on the family's crystal radio. He resolved to play one day for an orchestra under the direction of Monteux, whom he began to idolize. He developed his skills on the bass at Detroit's famous Cass Tech High School, where eighteen of the principal musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra taught. Principal bassist Gaston Brohm agreed to teach Burrell if he would promise not to play the classics for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Burrell considers Oscar Legassy of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra his best teacher and greatest influence. After high school, Burrell landed a job playing jazz in Detroit's Paradise Valley at a club called B.J.'s.
At the start of World War II, Burrell was drafted into the all-black naval unit at Camp Robert Smalls, at Great Lakes Naval base near Chicago. There, he played in the unit's all star band with Clark Terry, Al Grey and O. C. Johnson and took classes at Northwestern University and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After the war, Burrell used the G.I. Bill to attend Wayne State University in Detroit. He excelled in his music courses, but was discouraged by the racism of his advisors. In 1949, Burrell joined his mother's relatives in Denver, Colorado, and was soon hired by the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Eventually, he fulfilled his dream of playing for Pierre Monteux by joining the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 1965, he returned to the Denver Symphony Orchestra and met his wife, Melanie, a cellist.
One of the first blacks admitted to the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Burrell has mentored and taught some of the finest musicians in the country. Among his students are bassists Tony Knight of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Major Holly, and the late great Ray Brown. Other musicians guided by Burrell are jazz pianist George Duke and Burrell's niece, jazz vocalist Diane Reeves.
A2002.113
Male

6/21/2002
Burrell
Married
Cass Technical High School

Charles
Toledo
BUR06
None
Ohio
Denver, Colorado
When you go through life, be serious but not too serious.

Colorado
10/4/1920
Denver
United States
Beans
Classical bassist Charles Burrell (1920 - ) is a jazz virtuoso and professional classical bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. One of the first blacks admitted to the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Burrell has mentored and taught some of the finest musicians in the country. Among his students are bassists Tony Knight of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Major Holly, and the late Ray Brown.
Denver Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Beige
Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Charles Burrell interview
Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Charles Burrell lists his favorites
Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Charles Burrell talks about his family origins
Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Charles Burrell talks about his siblings
Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Charles Burrell recalls his neighborhood in Detroit as a young boy
Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Charles Burrell talks more about the Detroit neighborhood of his youth
Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Charles Burrell talks about his exposure to music as a child
Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Charles Burrell talks about his childhood personality
Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Charles Burrell recalls his mother's personality and his religious upbringing
Tape: 1 Story: 10 - Charles Burrell talks about his interest in music as a boy and his first exposure to the bass violin
Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Charles Burrell talks about his siblings and about his weight as a child
Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Charles Burrell recalls the schools he attended in Detroit
Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Charles Burrell talks more about high school and the teachers who influenced him
Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Charles Burrell recalls his early interest in classical music and his personality
Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Charles Burrell recalls his first jobs playing music
Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Charles Burrell talks about his music education and recalls one of his first teachers
Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Charles Burrell talks more about his early jobs in music
Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Charles Burrell recalls his enlistment in the Navy
Tape: 2 Story: 9 - Charles Burrell talks about his music career while in the Navy and the jazz musicians he met there
Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Charles Burrell recalls his experiences in the military
Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Charles Burrell talks about his experience at Wayne State University and his move to Denver
Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Charles Burrell details his experiences in Denver
Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Charles Burrell talks more about his experience with the Denver Symphony Orchestra
Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Charles Burrell discusses his wives
Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Charles Burrell recalls the highlights of his musical career
Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Charles Burrell talks about his favorite classical music
Tape: 3 Story: 8 - Charles Burrell talks about his music techniques
Tape: 3 Story: 9 - Charles Burrell talks about classical bass players and his mentor
Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Charles Burrell talks about his move to the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Charles Burrell talks about what it means to be a Principal musician
Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Charles Burrell recalls some of his more notable students
Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Charles Burrell talks about classical music and the treatment of blacks in the industry
Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Charles Burrell describes his personality and talks about his current family
Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Charles Burrell discusses his hopes for the black community
Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Charles Burrell talks about his mentor Al McKibbon
Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Charles Burrell talks about other jazz musicians from his past
Tape: 4 Story: 9 - Charles Burrell gives his opinion about the classical music scene
Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Charles Burrell talks about his practice regimen
Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Charles Burrell talks about Charles Mingus
Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Charles Burrell talks about his early move to Denver
Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Charles Burrell recalls his classical music experiences in the 1950s
Tape: 5 Story: 5 - Charles Burrell reflects on how he might be remembered and his music legacy
Tape: 5 Story: 6 - Charles Burrell recalls the first time his father saw one of his performances
Tape: 5 Story: 7 - Photo - Charles Burrell with his wife Melanie Markay Burrell, Denver, Colorado, 1990
Tape: 5 Story: 8 - Photo - Newspaper clipping of Charles Burrell performing, Denver, Colorado, August, 1984
Tape: 5 Story: 9 - Photo - Charles Burrell posing with his bass violin by Fred Larkin, Denver, Colorado, 1980
Tape: 5 Story: 10 - Photo - Charles Burrell with his bass violin and smoking a cigar by Fred Larkin, Denver, Colorado, 1980
Tape: 5 Story: 11 - Photo - Charles Burrell's niece, singer Dianne Reeves, age seventeen, 1973
Tape: 5 Story: 12 - Photo - Publicity photo of Enrique Jorda, Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco, California, 1959
Tape: 5 Story: 13 - Photo - Publicity photo Charles Burrell with his bass violin, San Francisco, California, 1960s
Tape: 5 Story: 14 - Photo - Concert program from the Denver Symphony Orchestra, March, 1967
Tape: 5 Story: 15 - Photo - Charles Burrell performing with Kevin Smith at a noontime concert on the Mall, Denver, Colorado, 1982-1983
Tape: 5 Story: 16 - Photo - Charles Burrell performing at a jazz club with Billy Horner, Al Hayes, and others, Detroit, Michigan, 1946-1947
Tape: 5 Story: 17 - Photo - Charles Burrell with Conductor Allan Miller, Denver, Colorado, 1982
Tape: 5 Story: 18 - Photo - Charles Burrell performing with his bass violin, 1984-1985
Tape: 5 Story: 19 - Photo - The Great Lakes Naval Training Center band with Charles Burrell on the tuba and Al Grey on trombone, Grosse Ile (Detroit), Michigan, 1945
Tape: 5 Story: 20 - Photo - Charles Burrell with his wife, Melanie Markay Burrell, and members of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, Denver, Colorado, 1980
Tape: 5 Story: 21 - Photo - Charles Burrell at the organ, 1961
Tape: 5 Story: 22 - Photo - Donald White, cellist with the Cleveland Orchestra, posing with Charles Burrell's car, 1965
Tape: 5 Story: 23 - Photo - Charles Burrell and Louise Duncan, Denver, Colorado, 1985
Tape: 5 Story: 24 - Photo - Charles Burrell and Philip Fath before a performance with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco, California, 1960
Tape: 5 Story: 25 - Photo - Charles Burrell posing with his bass for the 'Rocky Mountain News' newspaper, Denver, Colorado, June, 2002
Tape: 5 Story: 26 - Photo - Charles Burrell with members of his Navy jazz band, Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, 1941-1942
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