London Jazz News CD Review
Kelvin Christiane and Friends - The Arrival

Accomplished reed man Kelvin Christiane has played with everyone from Don Weller to Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie. Lately he has been helping keep jazz alive in south-west London, notably with his regular gigs at the Twickenham Jazz Club and the Home Guard Club in East Sheen, as well as releasing a steady stream of CDs.
The latest of these is The Arrival which features Kelvin on baritone sax — in tribute to Gerry Mulligan — as well as flutes, with a nod to Roland Kirk, skilfully supported by Nigel Price on guitar, Larry Bartley on double bass and Noel Joyce on percussion and drums, with Ross Stanley on piano on one track and David McLeod substituting for Larry Bartley on bass on that same track — Alone Together.
The Arrival is high calibre jazz. The CD is immaculately recorded, with great presence, and offers the listener an immediately engaging listening experience. The opening cut Joy Spring is insouciant, incisive and instantly lovely. Kelvin Christiane’s sweet, short boppish phrases on the baritone are intertwined with Nigel Price’s bright, agile guitar, underpinned with the buttery lushness of Larry Bartley’s bass. Kelvin sits out as Price solos with bittersweet precision, conjuring a whole big band’s worth of sound from his guitar. Then Price and Bartley swap roles, with the guitar providing rhythmic support and silvery frills while the bass solos, chunky, capacious and resonant. Finally Kelvin sweeps back in and his beacon-bright sax carries us out.
On the title track, The Arrival, an original composition by the leader, Kelvin Christiane supplements his baritone sax with the flute, and a very notable flute it is, too — breathy and hypnotic. Multi tracked, with interjections from the baritone, it provides a mesmeric hall-of-mirrors intro before giving way to a relaxed single flute as the tune evolves into a bossa nova delight complete with intoxicating, ticking percussion from Noel Joyce, almost subliminal bass and adroitly minimal guitar. Nigel Price’s guitar then fleshes out into a soulful, beautifully rounded solo. The flute is the perfect vehicle for this piece. Accompanied by the restless rustling and strumming of the bass it conjures up lush forests and Brazilian beaches. The musicians have all caught the bossa mood beautifully, with Price conjuring memories of Luis Bonfá. You can see why they named the album after this piece. It’s a hard act to follow.
But Alone Together manages to do so. It is taken at a sweeping, swinging pace, Kelvin Christiane’s flute effortlessly keeping up and shifting gears with the changing time of the tune. Ross Stanley’s piano flows and cascades into a nicely judged solo, his lightning playing managing to pack extra notes and figures into and around the racing tune without ever sounding rushed. Noel Joyce’s abundant and pungent drumming provides an instructive contrast with the delicate discretion of his percussion on the title track. Alone Together concludes with a gorgeously piercing flute trill, recorded with the subtle ghost of an echo. As well as expertly playing bass on this track, David McLeod is also the recording engineer for these sessions and he is to be congratulated for the exquisite job he’s done.
Lover Man sees Kelvin back on baritone— lush, velvety and resonant as he lays out the melody of this great standard. It is as wistful and lushly melancholy an interpretation as anyone could ever ask, with the baritone sax chiding, exhorting and declaiming as Kelvin Christiane conjures a boozy, bluesy late night mood before Nigel Price’s elaborate, vibrating spider web of guitar weaves an alluring pattern.
The impressive neo-bossa of the title track showed a love and appreciation of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s music, so it’s no surprise to find two Jobim tunes included here, Once I Loved and Favela. They are amongst the highlights of the set, with some particularly fine use of percussive shakers by Noel Joyce. But then almost every track here is a highlight. This is a combo loving what they do, and their pleasure communicates itself loud and clear to the listener. It’s hard to imagine anyone not having their spirits lifted by the pacy precision and emotional depth of such well wrought music.
KC Music KC023. CD review by Andrew Cartmel

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London Jazz News: January 2014

“The Kelvin Christiane Big Band is swinging hard on the first Tuesday of the month at Twickenham Jazz at The Bloomsbury, at the western end of Staines Road. The first session of 2014, at a normally bleak, time of year attendance-wise was really buzzing, with a packed crowd in what must be one of the most comfortable pub venues in London, the band also benefiting from good sound.
The programme featured a fair sprinkling of Kelvin’s well thought-out originals, with Grand Design, taking Trane’s solo on the classic All Blues as a starting point, scoring best with me for its relative simplicity and melodic content.
But the leader is no ego tripper and for the more informed buffs in the audience material like Benny Golson’s Whisper Not, Jerome Richardson’s Thad Jones/Mel Lewis classic Groove Merchant and the gorgeous, sumptuous sound of the saxophone section on Mingus’s Ellington’s Sound of Love were balm to the soul.
Christiane, a fine contemporary sounding tenor player himself, is not afraid of the great Cannonball Adderley philosophy of ‘four for them and two for us’, and so Basie’s Kid from Red Bank really allowed the rhythm section - Jim Treweek (piano), Mike Higgins (bass), and Noel Joyce (drums) - to strut.
Take The A-Train was another for older ‘fringe’listeners, while Goodman’s Let’s Dance, surely the most evocative signature tune in the history of the music, featuring the brilliant clarinet of Martin Nickless, was a masterstroke. While the essence of this band is cohesive team playing, which seemed to get more relaxed as the evening wore on, ther were strong solo contributions from trumpeter Paul Jordanous, trombonist Nick Mills and the ubiquitous tenor of Pete Hurt, a stalwart of so many band and educational parts of the London scene - an unsung hero if ever there was one.
And lastly let’s hear it for’ ‘the missus’. Leslie Christiane, who welcomes every visitor with a smile is a cheery MC. Her self-deprecatory ‘that’s the end of the karaoke section’ after she had sung a couple of standards made me laugh out loud.
Yes, for good music and a warm unpretentious atmosphere, Twickenham Jazz is well worth a trip.”
Brian Blain ‘Londonjazznews.com’ January, 2014.

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The Spin Club: November 2008
Like his previous visit to The Spin, one of the joys of an evening with Kelvin Christiane is his programming, which tonight included numbers by Adderley, Cole Porter, Gillespie, Mingus, Brubeck and Ray Noble. New to The Spin was a Toots Thielemann number “Bluesette”, which was recorded in 1962 and has seen more than 100 versions recorded since. Christiane played it brilliantly on flute, with Mark Doffman, Steve Rose and Ric Bolton adding colour and texture on drums, bass and guitar. As it finished, a fellow enthusiast commented that jazz musicians only ever seem to play one flute solo, and Christiane later confirmed it is because it is more difficult to hear yourself play. A CD of flute numbers is in preparation to satisfy demand for more.
Another first was “Hellzapoppin”, a new composition from Ric Bolton who has the rotund look of a potentially dissolute monk. His Burrell-like chord playing and drifts into blues and funk contributed an enjoyable contemporary piece to the evening. Christiane is a prolific composer and having made 9 CDs of his own music, is now ready to record one of standards. At some time in their career, most artistes feel a need to measure themselves against history, and one waits with interest, in much the same way as you might wait for a still life or landscape from Tracy Emin or Damien Hirst.
Christiane entertained us with his ability to play two saxes simultaneously in the manner of hero Roland Kirk, who managed an unbeatable three. Clarinet was Christiane's first instrument however, and I hope the artist sketching him from the audience caught the spectacle of his features inflating like a puffer fish into a globe as he reached for the notes he wanted. I would have enjoyed more clarinet and flute.
The newly-married Christiane is a happy bunny these days, and has a studio at the bottom of his garden. It would be an unusual challenge for a musician to struggle against happiness and comfort to retain his edge and creativity, when history suggests the best work comes from the opposite.
J.J. Marshall, November 2008.

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“Inventive and committed. Kelvin is clearly one to look out for and hear whenever the opportunity arises.”
Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal International.

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A most enjoyable, straight ahead, hardbop session recorded live at London's 606 Club this year. Kelvin Christiane is an excellent tenor saxophonist, with a round warm tone, which sometimes harks back to an earlier period in jazz. He is also a fine flautist.
Roland Perrin's piano playing shines throught. his solos are full of inventive twists and turns. Dominic Howles contributes some thoughtful bass and the drumming Winston Clifford is as masterful as ever.
The title track and opener starts with a slow section bursting into an energetic swinging blues. Claire Fisher's ballad “We'll be together again” gets a warm rendition with fine solos and Tad Dameron's “Our Delight” is delightful. Christiane pays homage to Roland Kirk (an obvious influence) on two tracks stating the themes on alto and tenor saxes simultaneously.
Harrison Smith, Musician magazine, September 2002.

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