Emile Joseph Christian (sometimes spelled Emil Christian) was an early jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trombonist; he also played cornet

Cornet

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

 and string bass.

Christian was born into a musical family in the Bywater neighborhood

Bywater, New Orleans

Bywater is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Bywater District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Florida Avenue to the north, the Industrial Canal to the east, the Mississippi River to the south and Franklin Avenue Street to the west...

 of New Orleans, most prominently his older brother Frank Christian was a noted cornetist and bandleader. Emile Christian played both cornet and trombone with the Papa Jack Laine

Papa Jack Laine

George Vital "Papa Jack" Laine was a pioneering band leader in New Orleans in the years from the Spanish-American War to World War I....

 bands. He went to Chicago, Illinois in late 1917 to play trombone with the Bert Kelly

Bert Kelly (jazz musician)

Bert Kelly was a jazz band leader who owned Kelly's Stables in Chicago's Tower Town in the 1920s. His jazz band is claimed to have been the first to use that term as Bert Kelly's Jazz Band in 1915....

 Jass Band. In 1918 he went to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to replace Eddie Edwards in the Original Dixieland Jass Band

Original Dixieland Jass Band

The Original Dixieland Jass Band were a New Orleans, Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz single ever issued. The group composed and made the first recordings of many jazz standards, the most famous being Tiger Rag...

; he toured England with the O.D.J.B., contributed his tune "Satanic Blues" to their repertory, and made his first recordings with this band. After a brief time in the Original Memphis Five, he returned to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 where he played with various jazz bands in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 (where he made more recordings), Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 (where he recorded with Leon Abbey

Leon Abbey

Leon Abbey was an American jazz violinist and bandleader.In the 1920s his eleven-piece band, known successively as the Charleston Bearcats, the Savoy Bearcats, and Leon Abbey's Band, was considered one of the best in jazz....

's band) and other European cities into the mid 1930s. He played in both Black and White bands in Europe and India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 before returning to the United States after the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He moved back to New Orleans in the 1950s where he played with the bands of Leon Prima

Leon Prima

Leon Prima was an American jazz trumpeter.Prima was the older brother of the singer Louis Prima, and began on piano before picking up trumpet. He played early in his life with Leon Roppolo, Ray Bauduc, Jack Teagarden, and Peck Kelley...

, Santo Pecora

Santo Pecora

Santo Pecoraro, better known as Santo Pecora was an American jazz trombonist known for his longtime association with the New Orleans jazz scene....

, and Sharkey Bonano

Sharkey Bonano

Joseph "Sharkey" Bonano was a jazz trumpeter, band leader, and vocalist....

 and his own band. In 1957 he toured with the Louis Prima

Louis Prima

Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...

Band. He continued playing in New Orleans into 1969, in his later years mostly playing string bass.

Emile Christian also wrote a number of tunes, including "Meet Me At the Green Goose", "Satanic Blues", and "Mardi Gras Parade".