Christian Vander was born on February 21, 1948. With his mother, he rubbed shoulders at a very young age with prestigious jazzmen like Elvin Jones, Kenny Clarke, or Chet Baker, who offered him his first drums.

He particularly listened to John Coltrane, whose death in 1967 let a profound mark on him. He leaves then to Italy and plays in the clubs with jazz and rhythm’ blues bands. When he returned home, he played with Mal Waldron, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, John Hicks...

In 1969, he founded Magma where about fifty musicians succeeded one another. Most of them are now world-wide famous : Didier Lockwood, Jannick Top, Bernard Paganotti, Michel Graillier...

In 1979, Christian Vander founded a parallel and complementary band to Magma : Alien with Benoît Widemann, Patrick Gauthier, Jean-Pierre Fouquey and Dominique Bertram. The band will become Alien Trio with Michel Graillier and Alby Cullaz.

Two albums of the Christian Vander Trio (his jazz band mainly playing John Coltrane’s repertoire), Day after day and 65 ! , where recorded between 1990 and 1993. Consisting of Emmanuel Grimonprez on double bass and Emmanuel Borghi on piano, the Trio gives regular performances in France and abroad.

Jean-Christophe Alluin (Translation by Filipe Ferreira)