[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 16, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      VERMONT'S GREAT JAZZ MASTER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 16, 2005

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, Vermont's great jazz saxophonist, Big Joe 
Burrell, died on February 2 at the age of 80. He was born and spent his 
early years in Port Huron Michigan. The story of his start in music is 
legendary. Here is how Brent Hallenbeck recounted it in the Burlington 
Free Press:
  ``As a shy 10-year-old, he approached his mother's boss and asked to 
borrow $5 so he could buy a saxophone.
  `Saxophone?' the man asked. `What are you going to do with a 
saxophone?'
  `I'm going to play it,' little Joe Burrell told him.'' And he did, 
mastering his instrument in the next few years. After serving in the 
U.S. Army during World War II, his musical career took off. At an Akron 
dance he played the opening act for a B.B. King performance, and King 
thereafter asked Big Joe to play saxophone in his orchestra. He would 
go on to tour with King for almost two years before meeting up with 
another major figure in American music, Count Basie.
  Basie invited Big Joe to play in his club in New York, and would 
become the major musical influence in Big Joe's life. ``Count Basie was 
the predominant influence on me until the day he died, and still is 
today,'' Burrell said in 2002.
  Ten years of playing in Canada eventually brought him to Montreal, 
from where it was an easy journey to play a date in Burlington, 
Vermont. There he discovered his nephew, Leon Burrell, was a professor 
of education at the University of Vermont. The meeting was doubly 
fortuitous: Leon invited Big Joe to live with him, and he made Leon's 
home his own for many years. And Vermont gained its most well-known, 
most well-beloved jazz musician.
  Big Joe jammed with fellow musician Paul Asbell, and out of their 
collaboration was formed an ensemble called The Unknown Blues Band. The 
core of The Unknown Blues Band included Asbell, Chuck Eller on 
keyboard, Tony Markellis on bass, and Russ Lawson on drums. And of 
course, Big Joe. Not only did they make music, but they shaped a whole 
new generation of musicians. Big Joe, who played with B.B. King and 
Count Basie, Etta James and Little Richard, was a formative influence 
on Trey Anastasio, the guitarist for Phish. In fact, Burrell played 
guest appearances with Anastastio's band in recent years.

  Last year, the Unknown Blues Band celebrated its twenty-fifth 
anniversary. The band was a Burlington staple, playing at gigs 
everywhere, and most especially at a weekly performance at Halvorson's 
Upstreet Cafe in Burlington. Even as age seemed outwardly to slow him 
down, Big Joe kept performing at his customary high level. Cafe owner 
Tim Halvorson told the Free Press, ``He'd shuffle in with his walker or 
a cane, but, boy, as soon as the music started and he got a glass of 
Canadian Club and he grabbed his saxophone, he was 30 years younger.'' 
As his nephew Dr. Leon Burrell said, speaking of his last performance 
just a month ago, ``He went out doing what he did best. It's like a 
cowboy dying with his boots on.''
  Big Joe was a big man--not only in physical stature, but big in 
heart. He loved music, he loved people, he loved playing in Vermont. 
And Vermont loved him back: He was an emblem of the amazing power of 
jazz, our nation's preeminent form of music. He showed all who lived in 
the Green Mountain State how jazz can speak to each of us, directly, 
deeply; he showed us that the music born in the South and in the big 
cities of the Mid-west has flowed, like a mighty river, all through our 
nation. He was an important tributary of that river, and all of us in 
Vermont who love music will remember Big Joe for that, and for the 
wonderful performances he gave us, time and again.

                          ____________________