Discography and CDs for sale

Piper At The Pearly Gates

Kelvin Christiane - tenor / soprano saxophones & flute
Mark Nightingale - trombone
Alex Hutton - piano
Rocb Rickenberg - double bass
Mat Home - drums

1. Starglow (Christiane)
2. Consternation (Christiane)
   
3. Returning Home (Christiane)
4. Night Journey (Christiane)
5. Inner Prayer (Christiane)
6. Unit 5 (Christiane)
7. Thoughtful (Christiane)
8. Night Blue (Christiane)
9. Cry of the soul (Christiane)
   

Consternation (Christiane) online cd sales

Best of Unit-5

Recorded by Nick Taylor at Porcupine studio 17th January and 28th February 1990. Remastered by Phil Scragg.

Kelvin Christiane - tenor & flute
Mark Nightingale - trombone
Nigel Fox - piano
Malcolm Creese - double bass
John Piper - drums

1. Far and Beyond (Christiane)
2. Lunar Tides (Christiane)
   
3. Crystal Moment (Christiane)
4. Who Can I Turn To (Bricusse / Newley)
5. Dream Sequence (Christiane)
6. The Piper (Christiane)
7. For Marjorie (Christiane)
8. Blueday (Christiane)
9. Charlotte's Song (Christiane)
   

Lunar Tides (Christiane) online cd sales

Timeless

Recorded live at the 606 club Chelsea London on the 1st June 2005

Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Alex Hutton - piano
Tom Farmer - double bass
Simon Lea - drums

1. Cheesecake (D. Gordon)
2. In your own sweet way (D.Brubeck)
   
3. Windows (C. Corea)
4. Invitation (Kaper/Washington)
5. Thoughtful (Christiane)
6. Blueday (Christiane)
7. Up Jumped Spring (F. Hubbard)
8. Chi-Chi (C. Parker)
   

Blueday (Christiane) online cd sales

Now

Recorded live at the 606 club in Chelsea London on the 18th February 2004. Recorded by Dill Katz and mastered by Phil Scragg

Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Alex Hutton - piano
Dominic Howles - double bass
Simon Lea - drums

1. Eternal Fire (Christiane)
2. It's Never Too Late To Be Happy ...NOW (Christiane)
3. War is Peace (Christiane)
4. How Insensitive (Jobim)
5. Ruby, My Dear (Monk)
6. Magic (Christiane)
   

It's Never Too Late To BE Happy ... NOW online cd sales

Allusions of Grandeur

Recorded live at the 606 club in Chelsea London on the 21st May 2003 and featuring The Kelvin Christiane Quartet:-

Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Roland Perrin - grand piano
Dominic Howles - double bass
Winston Clifford - drums

1. Monsoon (Christiane)
2. Allusions (Christiane)
3. Once I Loved (Jobim)
4. Earthplane Warrior (Christiane)
5. The Edge of Lightness (Christiane)
6. Like someone in Love (Van Heusen/Burke)
   

Allusions online cd sales

Universal Peace Suite

Kelvin Christiane - saxes flute, clarinet
Roland Perrin - piano
Dominic Howles - bass
Winston Clifford - drums

1. Echoes of another era "Vision"
2. Lifetime to Surrender "Truth"
3. Always find a way "Committment"
4. Golden Tears "Compassion"
5. Deepest Desire "Longing"
6. I fall in love too easily (Cahn/Styne) - bonus track
7. Nostalgia in Times Square (Mingus) - bonus track
   

  Echoes of another era "Vision" online cd sales

Red Dawn

  Red Dawn (mono 338k)

  Thunder Beings (mono 568k)

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This is refreshing group of virtuosi whose memory of bebop and hardbop is leavened by the spirits of both Coltrane, and more particularly, Roland Kirk. Christiane is an excellent tenor saxophonist, with a warm broad tone and clean, singing high notes which are highly emotive and with sometimes a Trane cry in his sound. He’s also a fine flautist.

Perrin’s accompaniments are wonderfully varied and his piano solos never fail to sparkle. The rhythm section is also superlative with bassist Howles and Clifford – one of the master drummers.

The repertoire is nicely eclectic- the title track is a powerfully swinging blues with an attractive and unusual theme composed by Christiane, and Tadd Dameron’s “Our Delight” gets a dynamic bebop airing. Carl Fischer’s lovely ballad “We’ll be together again” is given a tender and beatific performance with an outstanding tenor solo and a fine bass solo with very imaginative piano accompaniment. Christiane plays flute on Jobim’s “Corcovado” and solos with great panache. Two other blues with Roland Kirk connections are also given an airing. “Two for the Festival” has Christiane playing tenor and alto simultaneously for the theme. Then changing to flute for his solo which includes dramatic stop choruses in which he creates the hoarse flute tone that characterised Kirk’s untamed playing of the instrument. However, the most interesting and contemporary sounding piece is Christiane’s “Thunder Beings” which has a unique structure with changing tempos, angular phrases, big punctuations, strong solos and quiet elegiac passages. The album concludes with Kirk’s “Blues for A & T” which has urgent tenor and piano solos and terminates with a mighty drum solo and a wild ending. This album runs the gamut of the emotions.

Heaven is now

  Song For Lottie (mono 412k)

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As the 21st century dawned, the consciousness of Earths inhabitants moved towards a common goal. Realising their own inner power, a positive future was forseen establishing a new world vision; 'heaven is now'.

Enlightened- uplifting music channelled through the dimensions from a group of enlightened beings from the 'Pleiades'. This music was compiled from over four hundred hours of channelling by Kelvin Christiane and Philip Scragg over a period of two and a half years. The inner message throughout this music is to helping us to reach a new stage of evolution. Through working together in teams and becoming media and TV free........we will learn how to move beyond fear....

Production Phil 'Pip' Scragg / Artwork by Jane Foster Designes / All rights reserved copyright MCPS & PRS 2001

Live at the 6

  Letting Go (mono 316k)

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Recorded live at the 606 Club London by Dill Katz on 10th October 2001

Reviewing some early Blakey Messengers CD's recently it was re-inforced in my mind how much better those early bands sounded when recorded in clubs under favourable conditions. The same may well be true for Kelvin Christiane for although I haven't heard any studio sets by him, this live performance at the 606 in West London sparkles with good, modern jazz energy and commitment to the cause. The opening 'Violet Rain' is a hard, swinging workout for just about everybody and they all acquit themselves well. The leader has a very distinctive
sound on tenor sax with a tone compounded of several parts Coltrane, a few Roland Kirk and his own penchant for dipping into the lower register effectively;
a happy combination. Ohm's long solo is a gem of musical percussion, very well structured and skilfully executed.
The tribute to Kirk, 'Blue Rd', has Kelvin playing tenor and alto simultaneously as Roland did and then going into a personalised alto solo full of unexpected twists and turns and well structured blues licks. Then comes a dark textured tenor solo dipping frequently into those subterranean regions that normally only contra-bass players inhabit. Perrin solos brightly, his touch light and scorchingly incandescent. 'Letting Go' is an atmospheric ballad touched by gloom and despondency if I read the leader's solo correctly. Even here though, there are flashes of optimism heralding fresh starts and new beginnings.
Corea's '500 miles high' features fluctuating aspects of the flute sound in a varied solo using different ways of playing the instrument. The final 'In Walked Bud' is a heart-felt tribute to Thelonius Monk extracting the essence of the composer's quirky melody without slavish plagiarism. There is no fully understanding Monk but to dig him you need to love the music of the jazz world's major iconclasts and have a pervasive sence of humour. Kelvin and his sidemen appreciate him fully.
Highly recommended.

Awakening

  Faith

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"New to me, this is an excellent band of young British hard boppers who play with flair and enthusiasm. The leader's playing (he is heard mostly on tenor) is inventive and committed. As he is also composer and arranger of all titles this is clearly a young man to look out for and hear whenever the opportunity arises. There is also a great deal of drive and swing from the rhythm section. I particularly liked the opening track, Sam's Boogie, the hint of menace in the introduction to Joy Of The Spheres, and the elegantly introspective Faith. I would like to be able to tell you something about these musicians but the sleeve note simply lists titles, personnel and a handful of credits and acknowledgements. As the album is self-produced they seem to have missed a good opportunity for some valuable publicity. Anyway, it's the music that counts and, here, it counts for rather a lot. I look forward to more where this came from. Very good sound."

Salute The Sun - FMR CD43-EO797

 ~ Journey

~ River

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Some readers might have noticed Mr Christiane around the London circuit in recent years. His work had evaded me, but on this evidence hi is an impressive writer, showing a thorough and creative command of contemporary idiom. His compositions are variously reminiscent of M-Base players like Greg Osby and Gary Thomas (Salute The Sun), latter-day Wayne Shorter (River) and the straightahead post - Coltrane tradition (swing on Journey, Latin on Firefly), and he shows a virtually unfailing instance for musical development. He has assembled a very proficient crew to deliver music which often demands great precision, and he has, in Angilley, a very good soloist. The leader is a capable improviser too, perhaps at his best on River. As if to remind us that he is a fully rounded musical personality, he closes the set with a mildly incongruous conventional reading of "My One And Only". Altogether an impressive showing for a not overexposed talent.

Soho

  Rainforest (mono 684k)

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From the moment you hear the punchy, Art Blakeyish ensemble exclamations of the opener by this classy British band you know you're in safe hands. It's appropriate that the young saxophonist and leader Kelvin Christiane should have made the second CD of his career for Danny Thompson's much-acclaimed new Jazz Label, devoted as it is to the independent spirits of British jazz - because Christiane is certainly one of them. A saxophonist and flautist who also studied composition at Leeds College of Music - a broad education reflected in the fact that all the tracks here are his own work - Christiane is one of the most promising of the players on the British circuit who take their inspiration from bop, Latin jazz and the great African - American soloists of the Fifties and Sixties.

He followed up his college years with exposure to a school of hard knocks on the European jazz scene, working clubs on the Continent. When he returned to the UK, he began performing regularly in London, and led the band Unit 5, with Janusz Carmello and Mark Nightingale. Christine's composing came together during these years, and he wrote most of the material fro the group.

There are plenty of memorable moments on this disc, from the suitably strutting, mean - streets feel of the title track, to the leader's swerving lines and pure tone on soprano sax on the mixed - tempo theme of Noon, to the classic dug - in walking tenor on the free - swinging Blueday and the dewy, ethereal flute on "In a Quite Place". Christiane is also supported and embellished at every turn by an excellent band including the fluid and graceful Terry Disley on piano (catch his delicate Bill Evans - like intro to the ballad Twilight, and some highly personal refinements on Chick Corea's effervescent lyricism on Rainforest and Rob Statham on bass, a man who imparts an imposing muscularity to the often smudgy sound of the electric bass.

"One to watch", Crescendo writer Ken Rattenbury said of Kelvin Christiane, and on the evidence of this set it's undeniable. This energetic and creative young artist has set himself a tough task, reinventing som familiar incarnations of straight - ahead jazz in ways that are special to him. But these tracks show the world that he's well on the way.

Kelvin Christiane's Tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk

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Moonray / Serenade to a Cuckoo / I Got Rahsaan / My Ship / Serenity

This album is more than a mere tribute to Kirk. Christiane shows himself well able to handle Rahsaan's trademark skills. 'Two horns at once' are delivered with some panche on 'Moonray' and 'Rahsaan', he has no trouble with circular breathing and his voice over flute is similarly passionate on 'Cuckoo' and 'My Ship' He even captures the cadence of his hero's tenor line on 'Moonray'. It suggests that he is at least conversant with several important muses, although his own personality is more evidently displayed in the calm flow of his clarinet on 'Serenity'. Overall the album suggests that Christiane is a player to be followed.

Great Spirit

  Above The Clouds online cd sales

River of Forgetfulness / Green / Above the Clouds / Winding Path / Reflection / Volcano / Flowers for the Children / Speak Low / Great Spirit / Breath