Christine Sullivan is an Australian singer born in Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

.

Her early interest was in contemporary folk and rock idioms, but like her idol Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

 developed an interest in modern jazz, which she approaches in her own personal style.

She moved to Melbourne in 1986, studying classical technique at the Melba Conservatorium

Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music

The Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music was a school of music located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. During its early days it was closely associated with opera diva Dame Nellie Melba, after whom it was later named. In 1994 it became affiliated with Victoria University...

, also with American soul, gospel and session vocalist, Venetta Fields

Venetta Fields

Venetta Fields is an American singer best known as session musician for leading rock and pop acts of the 1970s including Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan and the Rolling Stones...

.

While working at the Limerick Arms in Melbourne in 1990, Christine was heard by British Jazz impresario Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

, who invited her to perform at his famous club in London. She performed there later that year, with Chico Freeman and Brainstorm

Chico Freeman

Chico Freeman is a modern jazz tenor saxophonist and trumpeter and son of jazz saxophonist Von Freeman...

 and again in 1992, opening for Chucho Valdes

Chucho Valdés

Chucho Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. In 1972 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Together with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Valdés is revered as one of Cuba's greatest jazz pianists...

 and Irakere

Irakere

Irakere is a Cuban band founded by Armando de Sequeira Romeu Music Director and composer, and by pianist Chucho Valdés in 1973...

.

She was a competitor (unplaced) in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R...

 in Washington DC in 1998. The judging panel included Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...

, Nnenna Freelon

Nnenna Freelon

Nnenna Freelon, , is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards for her vocal work, and has performed and toured with such top artists as Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall,...

, Diana Krall

Diana Krall

Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...

, Dee Dee Bridgewater

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...

 and Joe Williams

Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...

. The band backing the competitors included Norman Simmons

Norman Simmons (musician)

Norman Simmons is an American arranger, composer, educator, and most prominently a pianist who has worked extensively with Helen Humes, Carmen McRae, and Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'Day, and Joe Williams among others.-Biography:...

, Grady Tate

Grady Tate

Grady Tate, , is a hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer.He has played with Lional Hampton, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Lena Horne, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, Chris Connor, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Cal Tjader, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Count...

 and bassist Michael Bowie

She has performed at many Australian jazz festivals: The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz

Wangaratta Festival of Jazz

The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual festival of jazz and blues held in the town of Wangaratta, 2.5 hours from Melbourne in North East Victoria, Australia. It has become the premier jazz event in Australia and is renowned internationally....

, The Melbourne International Jazz Festival

Melbourne Jazz Festival

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival is an annual jazz music festival held in Melbourne, Australia from 4 - 13 June 2011.-History:The Melbourne International Jazz Festival was first held in 1998....

 and the biennial Brisbane Festival

Brisbane Festival

Brisbane Festival is an annual arts festival held in Brisbane, Australia.-History:Brisbane Festival was developed by the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council in 1996 as an initiative to foster the arts....

.

She has performed as guest or lead vocalist with James Morrison

James Morrison (musician)

James Morrison AM is an Australian jazz musician who plays numerous instruments, but is best known for his trumpet playing...

, Paul Grabowsky

Paul Grabowsky

-Biography:Grabowsky was born on 27 September 1958 in Lae, Papua New Guinea; his father Alistair had lived in Papua New Guinea with his wife Charlotte since the 1930s working on oil rigs, building roads, flying planes and playing the drums...

, Don Burrows

Don Burrows

Donald Vernon Burrows, AO, MBE is an Australian jazz and swing musician, playing the clarinet, saxophone, and flute....

, Graeme Lyall

Graeme Lyall

Graeme William Lyall , is a Western Australian saxophonist, composer and arranger. He became a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2003: "For service to music as Artistic Director of the Western Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, and as a musical director, composer and...

, Tony Gould

Tony Gould

Tony Gould is an Australian jazz musician, pianist, composer and educator.Gould's many recordings and performances reveal his harmonic view of music and his love of music from both African-American and European jazz traditions, as well as the classical works of Bach, Mahler, Stravinsky and...

, percussionist Alex Pertout, Chad Wackerman

Chad Wackerman

Chad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...

, guitarist Doug de Vries, David Hirschfelder

David Hirschfelder

David Hirschfelder is an Australian film score composer and performer.Hirschfelder was born and raised in Ballarat, Victoria....

, Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan

Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist of Armenian heritage.He was born in Kazakhstan to Eduard and Irina Grigoryan, both professional violinists. His family emigrated to Australia in 1981 and he was raised in Melbourne. Grigoryan began to study guitar with his...

, Joe Chindamo

Joe Chindamo

Joe Chindamo is an Australian pianist and composer residing in Melbourne. In 2009, "Something Will Come to Light" , written by Chindamo, won the 'Jazz Work of the Year' at the Australasian Performing Right Association Awards, his "Moments and Eternities" was also nominated.His music has been used...

, drummer David Jones, bassist Jeremy Alsop, Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...

, Randy Crawford

Randy Crawford

Randy Crawford is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist...

 and Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church...

.

She is a regular performer at such venues as Bennetts Lane, The Limerick Arms and Dizzy’s Jazz Bar in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and The Basement in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

.

Selected performances

• Ronnie Scott's, London 1990
• Ronnie Scott's, London 1992
• "Live on Stage" at the Continental Cafe for ABC Radio National 1997
• "Live on Stage" for ABC Radio National 22 August 2001
• "Live on Stage" for ABC Radio National 2002
• "The Boite Winter Concert" 3 March 2002
• "Live on Stage" for ABC Radio National 14 November 2003
• "Music Deli" Federation Square
  Federation Square
  Federation Square is a civic centre and cultural precinct in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
  
  concert for ABC Radio National 31 May 2003
• Shanghai International Spring Festival 2001 w/ Wang Zheng-Ting
• "Live on Stage" for ABC Radio National 2006 w/ pianist Andy Milne

Movie soundtracks

• "The Missing" soundtrack 1999
• "Molokai" soundtrack for Paul Cox 2001
• "Innocence" soundtrack for Paul Cox 2005

Discography

under her own name

• Nine Steps to Heaven (a gospel LP long out of print)
• It’s About Time (1991) Larrikin LRF257
• Live at Mietta’s (1993) Larrikin LRF297
• Here and Now (1997) Larrikin LRF482
• Bloom (1999) Festival/Walkabout LRF520
• "Morning Star" (never released?)
• Away (2010) Fuse

as a contributing artist

• "Holywell" for Joe Creighton (1994) Innisfree CD
• "Hot Food Cool Jazz" (1995) book plus CD package
• "Embrace" for The Lovers (1995) Gotham-BMG CD
• "Hush Now Sweet Child" for Jonathan Cohen (1995) Larrikin CD LRF373
• "Circle Dance" for Linda George (1996) Arid CD
• "Zoe" for Bob Venier (1996) Newmarket CD NEW20342
• "Anyone Who Had a Heart" for Joe Chindamo (1997) Walkabout/Larrikin LRF499
• "Blues Compilation" for ABC Jazz (1997)
• "Identify" for Mistaken Identity (1997) Newmarket CD NEW30042
• "Together" for Ted Vining Trio (1998) ABC Jazz 7243 496496 2 0
• "Black Orchid" for The Lovers (1998) Gotham/BMG
• "Sunday 8pm" for Faithless (1998) Festival
• "Adieu Miro" for Penny Dyer (1998) Newmarket Music
• "Songs for My Father" (1999) ABC Jazz
• "Sweet Life" for Renee Geyer (1999) Mushroom Records
• "Passion" Australian Art Orchestra with Paul Grabowski (2000) ABC records 465 230-2
• "From the Heart" for Alex Pertout (2001) Vorticity Music
• "Live on Stage: Love and the Blues" compilation (2003) ABC-MSI CD
• "Meditations on Love" for David Jones (2006) ABC classics CD 476 3163
• "Twilight" compilation for Michael Johnson Lyrebird Music

Sources

• http://www.christinesullivan.info/
• http://www.allegromusic.com.au/index.php?option=com_directory&task=profile&lid=80