On the first day of class, a UF chemistry professor plays a song: It’s an original dedicated to the trials and tribulations of freshman chemistry.
The song? “Bonds of Life.” The professor? Charles Martin.
This Friday, his students will get the chance to see their professor perform his music live.
Martin, also known by his musical persona “Chuck,” will perform Friday from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Brew Spot Cafe, at 1000 NE 16th Ave.
Owned by former UF chemistry professor Jeff Keaffaber, the Brew Spot acts as a restaurant and tutoring center by day and moonlights as a musical venue and bar. Students often go there for tutoring in basic all the way up to organic chemistry.
Martin is no stranger to performing and recording music. With five albums under his belt, the professor/singer-songwriter began his music career at 10 years old. However, a pressure to be the first in his family to attend college pushed him away from music.
“(My) hiatus from music lasted through my assistant professor years when I was at Texas A&M University,” he said. “I worked all the time and had no time for anything else.”
After getting tenure at Texas A&M, he moved to Colorado and realized something was missing from his life.
“I decided it was time to return to music,” he said. “I’ve been pursuing music seriously ever since.”
Inspired by The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Frank Zappa and songwriters such as Cole Porter, Martin picked up the guitar after watching The Beatles perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“I begged my mother to buy me a guitar,” he said. “She was a classically trained pianist, as was her mother, so I think she was sympathetic to my desire to learn music.”
Martin has released five successful albums: two with his rockabilly band, dblWiDE; two with his psychedelic rock band, The Righteous Kind; and his latest “Genius Boy Music” as a solo artist.
“Making this album was a very liberating experience because I went in to the project with the notion that it would not conform to any musical genre,” he said.
Released in 2014, “Genius Boy Music” incorporated rock, jazz, rhythm and blues, country and a number of other genres.
As distinguished professor and musician, Martin praises the local music scene and the talent that comes to Gainesville.
“On almost any night, you can see world-class musical entertainment in an intimate setting here,” he said. “DJs, EDM and other forms of electronic music are now attracting larger audiences, especially among college-age GNVers.”
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 10/2/2014]
