After high school, Burrell landed a job playing jazz at B.J.'s, a club in Detroit's
Paradise Valley. At the start of
World War II, he was drafted into an all-black unit located at
Great Lakes Naval base near Chicago, Illinois. He played in the unit's all-star band with
Clark Terry,
Al Grey, and O. C. Johnson, and attended classes at
Northwestern University and with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1949, Burrell joined his mother's relatives in
Denver, Colorado. In 1959, he fulfilled his dream of playing for
Pierre Monteux by joining the
San Francisco Symphony as its first African-American musician, Returning to Denver, he re-joined its symphony orchestra, playing with them for decades, retiring in 1999. According to
Jet magazine and
Indianapolis Recorder articles in 1953, Burrell quit playing in the Denver Symphony to become the bass player in
Nellie Lutcher's band. He was a prominent jazz player in the scene of
Five Points, Denver and was featured in the
PBS documentary on the subject. He rose to be a central player in the Five Points jazz scene by becoming the house bass player at the Rossonian Hotel, considered the "entertainment central" spot in Five Points during that era. He shared the stage with jazz legends such as
Fats Waller, as well as
Gene Harris. He was also noted as the teacher and mentor of bass player
Ray Brown and multi-
Grammy Award-winning vocalist
Dianne Reeves, a niece of his. Keyboardist
George Duke, a cousin, also credited Burrell for being the person that convinced him to give up classical music and switch to jazz. Duke explained that he "wanted to be free" and Burrell "more or less made the decision for me" by convincing him to "improvise and do what you want to do". He continued to perform well into his 90s, including playing live in the studio of prominent Jazz radio station
KUVO, and was one of the two grand marshals that led the kick-off parade at the Five Points Jazz Festival. In 2021, he appeared in the documentary film
JazzTown. Burrell died on June 17, 2025, at the age of 104. == Awards and tributes ==