Biography
Since he appeared in Cristián Cuturrufo's first quintet in 1996, the jazz of that decade was going to have its sights set on the new virtuoso electric bassist called Christian Galvez (in Last.FM he can also be found as Christian Gálvez, as properly spelled in Spanish), a talent of spontaneous generation, since he never had formal studies in his approach to amplified strings. Gálvez took Felipe Chacón's place in Cuturrufo's band and then took off as a solo artist to heights that led him to be one of the most popular, respected and versatile Chilean jazz players, as well as a composer, record producer, educator and founder of the Pez label.
Initially known by much of the public as the "Chilean Jaco Pastorius", Gálvez's active bass operations were oriented much more directly towards the generation of electric bassists of the post-Pastorius era. In that sense, while a soloist like Juan Caballero (he was the "Chilean Jaco Pastorius" of the late '80s) gave the first signs, Gálvez collected from men like Jimmy Haslip (from Yellowjackets) or John Patitucci (from Elektric Band) his colorful style as a soloist.
In 1997 he joined the cooperative of jazz players who appeared around Pancho Molina and joined Los Titulares to record the eponymous debut, which would be released in 1998. That same year he was summoned by sax player Ignacio González to play in Chile's first acid jazz project, Cyberjazz, and record the "Corazón Mix" album, which would be released the year 2000. At that point, Gálvez was already the most sought-after electric jazz sideman in the medium.
Since his appearance at the Jazz Club in the mid-'90s, he put his deep lines and very fast solos in the trios of Ricardo Arancibia and Marinho Boffa, the bands of Rossana Saavedra and Ammy Amorette, the group Supertrío in its electric version, the quintet of Panchito Cabrera and the power trio of Nicolás Vera, in addition to accompanying whatever jam was scheduled. Gálvez was such a recurring musician during that time, that at some point there were doubts about the shortage of bass players in Chile.
As a leader, he alternated between trios and quintets. In both formats he had fusion rhythm sections with the inseparable Lautaro Quevedo (keyboards) and his brother Rodrigo Gálvez (drums). He debuted with his eponymous album in 2000, which was followed with the release of Cero two years later, with an acoustic-oriented sound. But after founding the Pez label and becoming the musical director for Joe Vasconcellos and Zeca Barreto and session player for Myriam Hernández, he recorded one of the albums that reached the most success. From the title, the self-sufficiency and versatility of Christian Gálvez as an indissoluble musician was exposed in "Dinámica Solista", which would be released in 2004. For the staging of this music he had the collaboration of one of the new musicians close to him, the drummer Carlos Figueroa Salazar.
Since 2005 he worked very closely with the Argentine guitarist Luis Salinas, and was a member of the national bands that accompanied concerts by great jazz fusion musicians such as the drummer Billy Cobham and the bassist Stanley Clarke, with whom he went on a long tour throughout Europe. The meeting between both musicians came to fruition at the beginning of 2007 and resulted in Gálvez's departure to Los Angeles, where he continued his membership in Clarke's electric band, but not before adding to his solo discography made in Chile, with titles such as "Christian Gálvez Trío, volume 1" (2005) and "América Luz" (2006).
Upon his return in 2007, as an extension of his work with Clarke, he formed a new jazz fusion band with Andrés Pérez (tenor sax), Pablo Menares (double bass) and Félix Lecaros (drums). With them he edited "Imaginario" (2007). There, his electric bass was definitely a solo instrument, through the chormelody playing technique (which allowed him to develop music autonomously with simultaneous production of chords and melodies). Two years later, Gálvez extended this creative process with the album "Crisálido" (2009), in which he kept his sidemen, except for the entry of double bassist Marcelo Córdova.
For his next work, Gálvez returned to his electric roots by publishing the album "Cinético" (2010), with a very clear progressive jazz approach. He used a quintet with tenor sax player Claudio Rubio and a trio of young musicians from circles peripheral to jazz, who accentuated the rock nuances in the sound: Esteban Zúñiga (keyboards), Felipe Catrilef (bass) and Ronald Báez (drums). However, in 2012, Gálvez would take another step in expanding musical frontiers by writing and recording his "Concierto sinfónico N°1 para bajo y orquesta", a piece in four movements that he premiered at the end of that year and that he even presented with Guillermo Rifo as assistant director.
His solo recording series continued to expand over the years, and his connection with new musicians, not always from the jazz scene, broadened his angle of observation of music and sound. His participation in the chamber trio of electric bassists, along with the pioneer Ernesto Holman and the fundamental Jorge Campos, contributed to the development of Gálvez's chordmelodic approach to bass, and between the creation of the Escuela Superior de Jazz, where the musician channeled a side teacher, and the sequence of albums released by the Pez label, consolidated him as one of the most versatile musicians of modern Chilean jazz.
In 2014 he presented the album Organ kuartet, with the sound of the electric organ in the forefront, and that same summer he played at a large festival in the Parque Bicentenario of Vitacura, which was attended by the programming director of the Blue Note clubs in New York, Milan, Tokyo and Nagoya, on a special mission to observe Chilean jazz players. Thus, Gálvez performed in September 2014 in that famous New York club, as the first Chilean to arrive from his country, with a cast of national sidemen based in that city: Pablo Vergara (piano), Pablo Menares (double bass) and Félix Lecaros (drums).
The session became the album Live at the Blue Note (2015), but Gálvez extended his presence on Blue Note stages, performing in Italy and Japan. And in August 2015, a new Chilean cast led by the electric bassist arrived at the Blue Note club in New York, at the beginning of a series of presentations there promoted by his recording label: Cristián Cuturrufo (trumpet), Nelson Arriagada (double bass) and Alejandro Espinosa (drums). The quartet released the album "The Chilean Project live at the Blue Note" in 2016.
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