KOINONIA

Koinonia was a Christian jazz band that published several primarily instrumental recordings between 1982 and 1990, when the band disbanded.

Koinonia was a light that shined brightly, if for only a few years. There just were not, and still are no intelligence for marketing within the Christian music industry. There have not been that many all instrumental groups that have come out of the CCM world and of those who have come forward Koinonia and Seawind are really the only two that were on a level playing field with the secular jazz world in terms of talent and production quality.  

There have been solo efforts by Justo Almario, Richard Souther and Phil Keaggy – but they were mostly to compete in the New Age market of the late eighties and early nineties. So putting yourself head to head with George Winston, Alex DeGrassi and Yanni is no little feat.  

This isn’t an issue to either most Christians, and especially not to the record executives who are in charge of that particular industry. Those people, given the right profit margin, would eat their children. There was a pastor in Tulsa once who said, “you never been burned in a business deal like you can get burned by a Christian.”  

I think he meant that for some reason they expect to be able to get away with breaking contracts, not paying people royalties, ignoring basic business principals, because “God said” to do this or that. It is only the god of their egos.

Koinonia stopped making records in the nineties, but they are all still playing and recording frequently. They were a brilliant and interesting combination of CCM (contemporary Christian music) musicians and jazzbos. Harlan Rogers (keyboards), Abe Laboriel (bass), and Billy Maxwell (drums) were all a part of Andre Crouch’s roving band of life affirming minstrels for many years (the Disciples). They traveled the world over with Andre, playing concerts and sharing their faith. The “Andre Live in London” album is a particularly powerful statement from this band. Hadley Hockensmith sat in with the same group of guys on many CCM sessions, working for Bill Maxwell on Keith Green’s projects when Billy produced them.  

And then there is Acuna, the quintessential Latin percussionist. He earned a ton of jazz street cred playing with Weather Report on both the Black Market and Heavy Weather albums, and as jazz-fusion bands go, that lent a lot of credibility points to Koinonia as well. Heavy Weather set many sales records for jazz music, and is still considered one of the most ground breaking jazz rock fusion albums of all time. They were mostly all musicians you had or might have heard before, but with Acuna, they took on a whole new dimension. The seldom heard of John Phillips played sax on this first record and was never heard from again. These two added to the already burgeoning talent pool made a serious band in the making. They stayed on Sparrow Records (to their misfortune) and Sparrow didn’t have the first idea what to do with a jazz-fusion band. So their marketing was a fraction of what it should have been.

The drumming duties were split between Acuna and Billy Maxwell, and you can clearly hear Billy’s influence on the heavier songs, the more rock influenced. Acuna plays with a flare from many years of Samba and hard core Latin. Dean Parks and Hadley Hockensmith trade back and forth on the guitar work. It is an interesting combination, and they made four really remarkable records. 

The Tunes Themselves  

1 – More Than A Feelin’ An easy flowing groove with Billy Maxwell beating the drums down hard, and the rest of the band adding to the stew. The head is taken by Hadley Hockensmith and John Phillips, the tenor and rock guitar playing it in unison. Harlan plays a laid back country jazz solo on organ, and then Phillips tenor solo is the highlight of the first song with a screaming high journey into the overtones. His ideas are melodic and pretty, but he essentially does a Mariah Carrey screaming high top sound, which is entertaining. Then Harlan and Dean Parks come in to take it home.  

2 – Rescue This starts with an Abe Laboriel solo over the top of Acuna drums and percussion. There is a Latin feel to the beginning of this, with the band coming in over the top of it all. This does have the feel of some earlier Return to Forever. The keys are different, Harlan Rodgers is no Chick Corea – his feel is a lot more Okie than that, but that makes it a funkier feel than RTF.  

3 – Graceful This is the first ballad of the album, with Harlan Rodgers taking an extensive solo early on. Billy Maxwell plays his drums slow and steady, but is one of the hardest punchers in studio biz. He really beats the living daylights out of his drums. The melody is a synthesizer affair, and this is decidedly the eighties idea of smooth jazz. It is noteworthy that Koinonia were around before the Rippingtons or the Yellowjackets.  

4 – Cuando This is a hard groove, straight up and down with a solid rock drum beat. John Phillips is playing the head, and screaming high with his smooth and silky tone. The guitar solos are not bad, but not inspiring. The interplay between Acuna, Laboriel and Maxwell is really the highlight of this song. They are playing a Latin beat with the clave being handled by a rock drummer.  

5 – Divina Singing over the mellow movement of the band, the melody and harmony are played in unison with the flute. And the flute solo is not terrible, but the vocal element really takes away from the song in general. There was a lovely flute led ballad happening, but the vocals really spoil the song on this one.  

6 – Give Your Love Here we have Phillips in the weaker moment of his on the album, he had an extended solo and it starts out with such promise, but then dies off. Again the vocal element on this song really puts it in the toilet. The vocals are like a gang shout almost, so in my book if this were ice dancing, the guys would get penalized for dropping their partner on this one. The groove is funky as hell though. The drums are rock hard and pumping.  

7 – Valentine The bass and guitar are playing together, and this features either Dean or Hadley on guitar laying down a nice lead. This song is more of a lament than the previous. The sax plays along with it, and the mood is blue, it is sad, it is the wrong feel for a Valentine. The sax then takes charge and Phillips rather leaves us hanging. The chords are nice though, sweet and sad.  

8 – Funky Bumpkins This is probably the funkiest sound of the album, with a hard rock/funk/fusion feel. The trick with the guitar and sax together works well on this melody. The guitar solo is okay, but Abe Laboriel plays his fretless bass solo effortlessly, with grace and aplomb, dancing over the top of the iron beat of Maxwell and the crazy jangling percussion of Acuna. His solo rambles on and on, chorus after chorus until the band is ready to head back in.  

9 – On My Way Home This is another gorgeous ballad, with tender piano parts. The soprano sax and electric guitar is done tastefully, and the solos that do come down are fine. The feel of this song makes you sadder than any other part. And for a Christian artist, being on their way home could very well mean home to God, which is a long and sad journey indeed. The guitar lines with piano fills feel like a warm and fuzzy death, a subtle trip. This is an interesting ending to a sometimes fire breathing album.  

And In The End This was the first of four really quality jazz fusion albums from a unique sounding band. They didn’t hand over the reigns of their work to anyone; there was no successor in the wings. The album was uneven in parts, and it was an excellent thing that they dumped John Phillips for Justo Almario. Justo did two albums on Sparrows New Age (Meadowlark) label after the Koinonia stuff dried up, as did Richard Souther from A Band Called David. I later found copies of all four of them on LaserLight, clearly sold down the river to be re-released by them.

The band consisted of several Los Angeles based R&B session musicians:

Alex Acuña (formerly of Weather Report), percussion; 
Abraham Laboriel, bass; 
Justo Almario, sax, flute, and wind controller; 
John Phillips, woodwinds; 
Lou Pardini, keyboards and vocals; 
Hadley Hockensmith and Dean Parks, guitar; 
Harlan Rogers, keyboards; 
Bill Maxwell, drums.

Koinonia's albums include:

More than a feelin' (1982) 
Celebration (1984) 
Frontline (1986) 
Koinonia (1989) 

In 2005 a live recording from Gothenburg in Sweden called Celebrate In Gothenburg (1983) was released on DVD.

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Koinonia is a music group that were around in the early 80's -- their first public appearance was in LA's "Baked Potato" in 1980. The name comes from Greek, and means "to fellowship" or "to communicate by the act of using as common". They are all Christian (studio) musicians that have been (and still are) playing with a lot of other top names, and they decided to name their own "fellowship" group like that because of their common roots. 

They made 3 recordings - More Than a Feelin' (1983), Celebration (live in 1984) and Frontline (later, also includes some vocals). They performed live here in Denmark, and they are really good! They have not made any subsequent recordings as a group. 

The "original" band consisted of Abraham Laboriel on bass, Bill Maxwell on drums, Harlan Rogers on keys, Hadley Hockensmith and Dean Parks on guitar, John Phillips on woodwinds and Alex Acuna on percussion. At some stage Dean Parks left, and they replaced John Phillips with Justo Almario. 

You can search for more info on each of the individual members. In particular, Abraham (Abe) Laboriel, Alex Acuna and Justo Almario have been doing a lot with other bands -- and hence appear on quite a number of other records. Abe and Justo has done a CD together, and they have some of the others on it as well.

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/music/worldpop/MU110/koinonia.html