Koinonia was a Christian band birthed from the fusion in jazz music, which occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, contributing to a new, more electrified and diverse genre called jazz-funk.

Though less known in the United States, Koinonia established themselves as a huge sensation in Scandinavia and Western Europe, performing to sell-out crowds from 1982 to 1991 in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and France.

The original founding members of the band in 1980 were: bassist Abraham Laboriel, Weather Report veteran Alex Acuña on drums and percussion, wind player John Phillips, noted session-guitarist Dean Parks, and three members of Andraé Crouch's band, drummer/percussionist Bill Maxwell, guitarist Hadley Hockensmith, and Harlan Rogers on keyboards.

Lou Pardini has recorded several of his own albums, composing a Grammy-award winning song for Smokey Robinson;[3] he joined the band Chicago in 2009.

[2] As of 2014 Abraham Laboriel, Justo Almario, Bill Maxwell, with the addition of long-time arranger/composer/sessionman, Greg Mathieson, make up the jazz-fusion quartet known as Open Hands, based in Los Angeles.