More about George, Kenny, Gino, and Al

As I pointed out the other day, my connection with these singers was entirely through their music. There was no going online in order to Google about their lives; there was no following them on social media. Anything I knew about them (or at least thought I knew about them) was through the words of their songs, the energy that came through their singing and/or playing, and their band’s overall consciousness or vibration (although I certainly wouldn’t have used those words at the time).

While revisiting this period of my “personal music history” I’ve needed to spend time remembering, looking up lyrics, and checking out videos. In the process I’ve been able to confirm what my intuition told me all those years ago, that each of these artists was — in their own unique way — channeling something positive and uplifting through their music!

More about George Benson
“Benson has been married to Johnnie Lee since 1965 and has seven children. Benson describes his music as focusing more on love and romance, and eschewing overt sexuality, due to his commitment to his family and religious practices, with Benson serving as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.“

More about Kenny Loggins
“For Kenny Loggins, that connection to the spiritual has always been his ability to, as he put it, ‘Stop and listen to the song playing in my head.’ This for him was the light, the love, the sense of Interconnectedness of the world as a whole, and his songs are the records of what the Spirit imparted to him when he would allow himself to listen.“

More about Gino Vannelli
“Vannelli considers his spirituality to comprise at least 50 percent of his outlook, and he says the greatest lesson he’s learned is to maintain harmony between joy and sadness, to keep an even keel — and to live modestly, and be grateful.“

More about Al Jarreau
“…a desire to use his voice as an instrument of joyful healing. A statement on his web site says that music was only his second priority. His first … was healing or comforting anyone in need … He needed to see a warm, affirming smile where there had not been one before. Song was just his tool for making that happen.“

To close out this era of my “personal music history”, I’m going to leave you with the official, animated video that Al Jarreau created for his song Mornin’. I didn’t use it the other day because even I thought it might be a bit much. But, you know, this is who this man truly was and I want to honor that.