Chris Mason-Battley Group

Chris Mason-Battley Group

The Band is led by Chris Mason-Battley on Saxophones and vocals. After leaving the successful Jazz-Funk band 'Blue Train' in 1994 to spend a year and a half playing and absorbing music in Europe, Chris returned to New Zealand looking to form a band to develop the musical ideas he had been working on in Europe.

Over the next couple of years Chris built the band up, enlisting the different band members as they met and found common musical ground.

The band is now a 5 piece featuring:

Chris Mason-Battley	Soprano and Tenor Saxophones, Vocals, CMBG leader, Co-founder of ‘BlueTrain’Jazz-funkband Live and recording session player, 1st Tenor Sax, Queen City Big Band (1998-99)
Graeme Webb	Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Fretless Bass The Fondue Set' (with vocalist Caitlin Smith), Ross Mullins, 'Superbrew', Hattie St John Band, Graeme Webb Band
David Lines	Piano and Synths Lecturer - School of Music, Auckland University, 'Neon Quaver', Brendan Power, 'Pacific Jazz Arts Ensemble'
Sam Giles	Electric Bass 'New Pacific Music Ensemble', 'Spargo','Brassouls','HMG',Streetcar'
Malcolm Taylor	Drums ‘Jazz Committee’ (Nathan Haines), Mark de Clive-Lowe Group, Queen City Big Band, Julie Mason, Beaver, Hattie St John, Grant Chilcott

Chris writes: "It's great working with such talented musicians. We do a lot of corporate and private function work which gives us the opportunity to play together regularly, performing a wide range of jazz-oriented music, developing our sound and playing original material."

As well as the corporate and private work, the Chris Mason-Battley Group regularly performs at a range of music events such as: The Americas Cup Village Entertainment, Music in Parks (Auckland City Council), Montana Winter Jazz Series, Parachute Music Festival, and at live Jazz venues in Auckland and beyond.

Recording the band's first album was another step ahead for the band in developing its sound. 'Karakia' was recorded in October 1999 and released at the Parachute Extreme Music
Festival (February 2000 attendance 18,500). In July music from the album was made available on the international music site Mp3.com. The response was amazing with up to 5000
downloads per day, placing the songs at the top of the jazz charts and even in the overall Top 40 chart. Since then, the Chris Mason-Battley Group has released its second album,
'Unspoken'.