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Charlie Burrell, 1980

Born in 1920, Charles “Charlie” Burrell grew up in Depression-era Detroit. In the seventh grade, he took up the double bass and later heard the San Francisco Symphony play Tchaikovsky’s 4^th Symphony on his family’s crystal set radio, inspiring him to pursue a career in classical music. He enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II, serving in the all-Black naval unit at Camp Robert Smalls near Chicago and playing in its all-star band with trumpeter Clark Terry. After the war, Burrell attended Wayne State University on the GI Bill but was discouraged from becoming a music teacher because of his race. He moved to Denver and landed an audition with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and became its first black member. He would then earn the same pioneering distinction with the San Francisco Symphony and was also admitted to the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1965, he rejoined the Denver Symphony Orchestra (now the Colorado Symphony) and, retiring after three decades, continued to play in jazz bands and with the Charlie Burrell Trio in clubs around Colorado, having previously performed with legends like Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. The young musicians Burrell mentored include keyboardist George Duke and his niece, Grammy-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves. He received the 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.