--Written by Melissa Milton
If you want to understand what makes people tick, ask a clinical psychologist. Or ask a jazz lover. Better yet, ask Charlie B - he’s both, and a lot more, all rolled into one soft-spoken enthusiast and explorer.
Charles Burchell, aka Charlie B, WWOZ show host for the Friday version of Jazz from Jax Brewery, has managed two careers, or two loves as he calls them, over many years, one as a psychologist with a PhD from Louisiana State University and the other in radio and television. He’s been in front of the camera or on the air, AM and FM radio, on and off since he was a student at Tulane University.
"It's just been two parallel universes, and I like the way that it is."
Dr. Burchell maintains his private psychology practice, and somehow Charlie B also manages to squeeze in the time to create a three-hour show of what he calls the best in contemporary and classical mainstream jazz.
"WWOZ, coming here to do the show, remains a highlight of my week. I look forward to it, and I get excited about it every Wednesday before the Friday that I do the show. I start putting my playlist together, and it’s just a breath of fresh air."
"All this exposure to jazz, it’s still the happy problem of my life. There's so much music that you can fill a three-hour show with."
Charlie B inherited his lifelong love of jazz music, and of the jazz organ in particular, from his father. He still has his father’s vinyl collection, and that early exposure to artists like Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, and Dr. Lonnie Smith, is the inspiration for 30 minutes of jazz organ that is always a part of his show. He calls that segment "Charlie B's Orjazm." "Get the spelling right!" he laughs.
Eventually in conversation, the double helix that is Dr. Burchell and Charlie B comes into view. "Music is so important. I was listening to a podcast the other day that was saying music is essential to humans and how we've evolved. The parts of the brain for music are all over the brain, unlike for speech (which is centered in the left temporal lobe)."
"Even if you're just listening, and you think maybe only the auditory cortex is involved, people pop their fingers, tap their feet, clap their hands, so music excites so many parts of the brain. It's the improvisational nature of jazz that delights. The brain likes to predict the next note, the next word - your brain might be expecting one word or one note, and then something else happens, and you say, 'oh, that’s so good.'"
To keep up with the ever evolving idiom of jazz, Charlie B listens to a number of radio stations and podcasts, reads the jazz journals, jazz charts, and books about the lives of musicians as well as how they approach their craft.
"Don't say it's dead, because jazz is not dead. It's a living form. It’s about that groove, and the groove is the thing, the through line, between older genres and what's happening today."
As for his shows, Charlie B likens them to one of the essential elements of jazz: "Improvisational comes to mind. I go with the flow sometimes, I look out over the Mississippi River and that's inspiration, sometimes it's a change in the weather, sometimes it's the season, and the music will just flow. You get to hear me in the music."
