Marnie Jones
Grace
Dolphin and whale sounds weave with harp, flute, percussion, occasional voice in oceanic ambience.
The music of Marnie Jones has been acclaimed throughout the U.S. All of her albums are rich and sensitive and all of them aim to provide a healing atmosphere. To date, she has made five harp-centered instrumental recordings and three vocal ones. In 1994, she collaborated on an album with poet Carol Epsen.
Marnie offers live and recorded music, workshops and lectures on healing with sound and music, and individualized healing sessions.
A resident of Vashon Island, Washington, since 1992, Marnie owns an inn in an old country church(angelsofthesea.com) and occasionally plays the harp for guests. For eight years, she was an artist-activist against a proposed sand and gravel mine on the island. She is the single mom of a teenage son and caregiver to a friend with a brain injury. All of this rich life experience provides grist for the creative mill.
Marnie says, "Music has been a passion of mine since I was ten and started playing the electric organ. Then it was guitar at 14, and I have been singing just about all of my life! I started writing my own songs in the mid 1970s and that totally changed my level of commitment. If I didn’t sing my songs, who would?
“In 1985, after a 17 year career in industrial design, I began to focus on music as my life's work. A month later, I discovered the harp which allowed me to create deeper music. By then, I had become aware that I could heal with my voice and soon I was to find I could intuit personal music for individuals."
Marnie has studied with Joel Andrews, Don Campbell(The Mozart Effect) and others, but has followed her intuition to learn more about music through improvisation and more about healing from her students and clients than from any book or teacher. She has done Reiki healing since 1981 and more recently became a Karuna Reiki® Master. She has given lectures and workshops for holistic nurses, dolphin enthusiasts, spiritual retreatants, new thought church goers and holistic fairgoers in many areas of the US. Also, she has been on radio talk shows all over the country, and cable TV in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Tacoma.
Several of her albums were made in Minnesota before she moved to Washington State. Minnesotans she played with included Max Swanson, who has played winds(flutes, clarinet and sax) on five of her CDs. Marnie says,"Playing with Max is like making love in the ethers. We are so in synch and he plays with such passion and sensitivity!"
Other Minnesota musical collaborators have included Severin Behnen(keys and voice), Stan O'Daffer(keys and percussion) and Paul Gunther(percussion).
In Washington, Cary Black(upright bass), David Lange(keys), Greg Scott(voice and guitar) and other fine studio players have appeared on her newer albums, along with Max, who traveled there to improvise some new pieces. Marnie says, "Max is a treasure. Blind since birth, he sees through his music. Even though we had not played together for several years, we picked up right where we had left off."
Marnie’s other passions include photography(“like a song all happening at once”) and sailing(“Spiritual bliss and sanity!”). “Now that the kid is getting more independent, others are fighting the mine, the inn is run by someone new and my friend is getting over his brain injury, I can finally focus again on my music and healing work. Yippee!”
New Age: Environmental