Musing on Johnnie Carl
The music world seems replete with people who work hard, achieve some level of
fame and disappear, but there are those people who patiently consistently give
their lives to the work of making fine music and who rarely get mentioned on anybody's
list of who's who in music. For a few sentences I would like to express my gratitude
to many fellow musicians who stay focused on developing their art and craft, consistently
refusing to seek the glory, consistently committing themselves to years and years
of good work.
One such fellow musician is Mr. Johnnie Carl. For more than three decades he has
cranked out orchestrations for the music at the Crystal Cathedral. He has arranged
every conceivable type of music. He has never complained about the amount of work
tossed in his direction and has consistently given to each project the care and
wisdom that is rare among arrangers who spend their lives mostly overwhelmed with
too much work.
Finally, after thirty years, Johnnie has decided to make some of his arrangements
available. He has created his own website, www.johnniecarl.com
where his catalog will be displayed and where church musicians can order individual
arrangements. If I could figure out some way to give Johnnie Carl a little of
the glory he deserves, I would surely do it. What I can do, is say to fellow church
musicians that there is a goldmine here. It is a goldmine of lovingly created,
tenderly watched and expertly crafted arrangements of hymns, contemporary Christian
songs and well-known choral and orchestral masterpieces. You would do well to
check him out.
Thanks, Johnnie, for years and years of sitting with pencils in hand and keyboard
under fingers to give the church an invaluable gift.
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