Career
He earned a medical degree from Otago Medical School, New Zealand, and, while practicing as a physician in Australia, played in the Australian jazz scene until he moved to New York City in the mid-1960s. In New York, he initially worked as a medical doctor, continued to play jazz and attended the Juilliard School of Music. Christie has played with a variety of notable jazz musicians including Ahmad Jamal, Jaki Byard, Chet Baker, Paul Winter, Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Tal Farlow and many others
In the 1970s he established a teaching position and eventually became Director Emeritus of Jazz Studies at Westchester Conservatory in New York State.
