Charles Burrell’s’ life has taken him from playing in bands in basements, bars and concert halls from Honolulu to Carnegie Hall. He broke the color ban on classical musicians with symphonies and
has played with the greats – Ella Fitzgerald, Errol Gardner, Charlie “Bird’ Parker, Earl “Fatha” Hines,
Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. And how did he get there? Practice. Practice. Practice.

He grew up in Detroit with seven brothers and sisters and a disappearing father but was raised by a wonderful mother, Denverada (yes, she was from Denver!). She instilled in her children, “the only good way is the honest way.” Charlie never missed a day of school from K-12. A music teacher in the 7th grade told him there was an opening in the school band, he walked in to audition and was the only one there. And there was only one instrument – a big bass fiddle. “I’ll take it,” he said and that began a love affair of 90 years. “Music is my great love affair and in fact, my first and always.”

Dragging his big fiddle home was not easy so his mother bought him a wagon at Goodwill for 25 cents. He and the wagon were inseparable. In 8th grade, he played his first jazz job for 5 cents. At 12, his class went to hear the Detroit Symphony, and he saw “elegant men wearing long coats and white ties. “I said to myself, that’s what I want to look like.” He’s still nattily dressed and always wears a hat. He has six of them.

After high school, he came to Denver for a visit with family and then joined the Navy. He was completely
happy with all the discipline of the service (and food) and woke every morning at 4 a.m. to practice for three hours before he went to his job. After the Navy, he attended Wayne State University majoring in music and playing with a lot of jazz musicians. Once he played with George Rhodes for a week. “I knew I never wanted to play jazz again. I never had played so hard and fast.”

Symphony orchestras were not integrated in the ‘40s and his true love was really classical music. He picked up side jobs with Lionel Hampton and Fats Domino—“hardest job I ever had in my life for one night and $10.” After many travels and side gigs, he returned to Denver and took a job at Fitzsimmons as a bed-pan specialist. He loved the job and food. Charles was constantly hungry after playing and practicing daily. One day on a streetcar, he noticed a man with a large bag that could only be a musical instrument and they started to chat. The man was a musician with the symphony and got him an interview. Charles was offered a contract – the first African American member of a major symphony. He was there for ten years. He met his wife Melanie in the symphony, she played cello, and they were married for 52 years. He always smoked a daily cigar, it allowed him to think and rethink a lot of his ideals and goals.

Being married and having a family, required more money, so Charles always had side jobs. For five years he was a Red Cap at the airport ($150 a day helped) and lucked out getting a job as a janitor for the Denver Auditorium where the symphony played. One summer he put linseed oil on all 9,000 seats at Red Rocks, top to bottom. He was with the symphony from 1949 to 1959. Charles then moved out to San Francisco and was hired by their symphony orchestra for a 26-week season and was there for five years. After a startling earth quake, he moved back to Denver and rejoined the Denver Symphony. When the Denver symphony went bankrupt in 1989 and the Colorado Symphony was born from the ashes, both Charlie and his wife were a part of the new organization. There he met Lowry resident Sandy Lasky who was Marketing Director for the Colorado Symphony and where Sandy’s husband Evan Lasky was also involved. Together they have been friends for more than 40 years and still visit often.

At 104 (on October 4), life is slower now. He’s been in Brookdale, Lowry, since 2020 and stills smokes a cigar a day, still dresses regally and wears a signature hat. He listens to classical music daily and he can easily talk music and theory. Charles has been a teacher, mentor, bed-pan specialist, a Red Rocks painter, a inductee into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and a bassist who was the first African American into the white world of symphonies. He’s come a long way.

Meet Your Lowry Neighbors is a monthly feature written by our intrepid reporter Sally Kurtzman, who knows everyone in our community. If you have a suggestion for a Meet Your Lowry Neighbor, please send us an email to connect@lowryunitedneighborhoods.org.