Christine Duncan

Christine Duncan began learning her craft in church. A minister’s daughter, she performed with her musical family, The Duncans, in gospel shows on stages across North America from the age of five. When she was 15 she recorded her first album of her own original gospel tunes in Nashville.

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Inevitably her roots led her from gospel and inspirational music to soul, singer songwriter folk music, R&B/blues, jazz and more recently, new music and improvised music. Since 1994 she has released a number of jazz CDs, improvised music CDs (2 Barnyard Drama albums and Idiolalla), new composed music CDs (Phh!k with Peter Hannan and Henry Kucharzyk and The Green Suite with Geordie Haley’s Everytime Band), and has been involved in many other recording projects, including recording 2 albums with the Hugh Fraser VEJI band.

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A musical chameleon with a near five octave range, Duncan uses her voice as an instrument, exploring its full tonal, timbral and textural range. She is involved in everything from Jazz, R&B, gospel, improvised music, sound poetry, to new music and musique actuelle. She has recorded and/or collaborated with Bob Murphy, Hugh Fraser, Miles Black, Veda Hille, Paul Plimley, Danielle Palardy Roger, Jean Martin, DB Boyko, and performed with such names as Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler, Rufus Reid, P.J. Perry, Ray Charles, Linton Garner, Paul Horn, Jeff Healey, Andre Crouch, Sabeer Mateen, John Oswald, Paul Dutton, Michael Snow, Eugene Chadbourne, Nobuo Kubota and many others. She has been a recording artist for many years, most concertedly since 1994. Her most recent recordings are available through www.barnyardrecords.com.

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Christine has been a member of the VEJI (Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation) big band for 14 years. This group was featured as part of the IAJE convention in Toronto, January 2003, and performed at the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana Cuba in December 2006, with Chucho Valdez.

She has been a featured performer in two new music operas, The Gang (1998 and 1999), written by Peter Hannan and Tom Cone and 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade, winner of the Alcan Performing Arts Award: Music/Opera 2002; a new opera premiere which was presented in Vancouver BC, by Modern Baroque Opera and Vancouver New Music, in March 2002.

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Christine was nominated for the Alcan and Pacific Music Industry Assn. 1997 West Coast Female Vocalist of the Year. She was also the subject of a 1998 CTV/BC Film funded documentary-portrait entitled Coming Home: Christine Duncan at Christ Church Cathedral, currently showing on BRAVO.

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Christine is one half of Barnyard Drama, an improvising duo of drums, electronics and voice, with Jean Martin. They toured Canadian Jazz Festivals in summer 2003, and have released 2 albums, the most recent, I’m a Navvy, at the Festival Internationale de Musique Actuelle a Victoriaville, QC, May 2006.

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Another more recent project is Idiolalla with DB Boyko – voice, and Jean Martin – drums, an improvising trio with a self titled album released in June 2006, on the Montreal Label Ambiances Magnetiques.