Lyndon Van Christie (3 August 1928 – 28 March 2020) was an Australian-born American-based

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

. He earned a medical degree from

Otago Medical School The Dunedin School of Medicine is the name of the School of Medicine that is based on the Dunedin campus of the University of Otago. All University of Otago medical students who gain entry after the competitive Health Sciences First Year prog ...

, New Zealand, and, while practising as a physician in Sydney from 1961, played in the local jazz scene until he moved to New York City in 1965. In New York, he worked as chief medical resident at Yonkers General Hospital (1966–68), continued to play jazz and attended the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

studying with Homer Mensch (1968–69). Christie played with a variety of fellow jazz musicians including

Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and educator. For six decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. Biography Early life Jamal was born Fr ...

, Jaki Byard,

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...

, Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi,

Tal Farlow Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921 – July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard. As Steve Rochinski notes, "Of all the guitarists to emerge in th ...

and many others.''Biographical Dictionary of Jazz,'' by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...

, 1982. He was the regular bass player in harpist Daphne Hellman's trio, Hellman's Angels. In the 1970s he established a teaching position and eventually became director emeritus of jazz studies at Westchester Conservatory in New York State.

References

External links

Profile
mville.edu; accessed 6 March 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Lyn 1928 births 2020 deaths University of Otago alumni Australian jazz double-bassists American male double-bassists Australian medical doctors Australian expatriates in the United States Place of birth missing 21st-century double-bassists 21st-century Australian male musicians 21st-century Australian musicians Male jazz musicians 20th-century double-bassists 20th-century Australian male musicians 20th-century Australian musicians