Abe Laborial & Friends

One of the morning sessions at the Saddleback Worship and Creative Arts Conference was set aside for Abe Laboriel and Friends to lead us in worship. Abe had Sheila E on Drums, Kirk Whalum on Sax, Paul Jackson Jr on Guitar and Tom Brooks on Keys. A Superband if ever there was one! They set up some atmospheres and some cooking grooves and blazed over them with virtuosic improvisation. Truly amazing and inspiring. These are the guys I was so into about 15 to 20 years ago

In fact, Abe had another band way, way back called Koinonia. A band of incredible Christian musicians playing instrumental music par excellence. (Just as a side note - I met Hadley Hockensmith the other day. He just lives down the road from me. He was the guitarist in Koinonia and was an amazingly tasteful, melodic and soulful player. Still is I believe.)

Abe and Kirk Whalum - Wailing!

Paul Jackson Jr and Sheila E - she got off the drums to encourage some crowd participation at one point.

Paul Jackson Jr. playing in the Spirit.

Here's a video of Koinonia nearly 25 years ago featuring both Hadley and Abe. Both looked a lot younger then!