In 1978 Christian graduated with a First Prize from the conservatory. He later studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music. "I'd say the first thing that shocked me when I arrived was that I discovered I wasn't bad," he laughs. "I began to concentrate 100 percent on jazz, on improvising and building it slowly into something personal."

While at Berklee Christian won a number of awards, including the Oscar Peterson Jazz Masters Award, the Great American Jazz Piano Competition and "Downbeat" magazine's distinction as Top Collegiate Jazz Soloist.

Christian toured with one of his mentors at Berklee, Gary Burton, from 1987 to 1989. He then joined ebullient big-sound trumpeter Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau Band as Music Director in 1990. He's spent much of the 90s writing and arranging for Ferguson and it was this association that brought about his 1st CD for Concord Records, Maynard Ferguson Presents Christian Jacob, a trio recording with Peter Erskine on drums and John Patitucci on bass. His second recording for Concord was titled “Time Lines” and featured Adam Nussbaum on drums and Steve Swallow on bass.

Increasing his involvement as an orchestrator after several performances with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Christian joined with Renold to write a suite for the 200th anniversary of the Helvetic Constitution. This brought about a second project, written and performed as a birthday gift for the King of Thailand. Both pieces were sponsored by the Swiss government and written for the Jazz 5tet and Symphony Orchestra. Both The Helvetic Suite and The Six Cycles were released on CD.