Serving through song

Glenn Jorian sits in the cockpit of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the “biggest and best equipment the Air Force had.” He’s floating over the Pacific Ocean, slow and low like they told him.

Jorian belts out a few lines to “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” a gospel song.

I sing because I’m happy!
I sing because I’m free!

He crescendos through the lyrics with his booming voice while being rooted on by others over the intercom.

“Yeah, chief, go get ‘em!”

His eye is on the sparrow/and I know he watches me!

Jorian’s journey to the Air Force was tied with music. Actually, nearly everything in his entire life has some sort of a connection with music.

As an only child born in Fresno, Calif., Jorian quickly changed scenery and moved to Chicago. His family was close with music from the day he was born; his grandfather ran a choir, his uncle took it over for him.

When he was at home, gospel music was all Jorian heard. On any given day, he would hear the Moody Bible Institute’s premier radio station: WMBI.

“My father listened to it all the time,” Jorian said. “My folks hardly had anything else turned on.”

But Jorian would connect with music most when he went to visit his extended family.

“We would go to any of their homes, and every time we were there,” Jorian said, “music happened.”

When he was 16, Jorian went to Wright Junior College and kept his connection with music alive. He played in the band, orchestra, and sang in the choirs. Jorian was so in touch with the orchestra that he and some other members enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program, which is how Jorian got to be known as “The Singing Pilot” who patrolled open waters after World War II.

Jorian’s career in music really picked up after he came home at the age of 20.

Right off the bat, he was asked to sing in the Norwood Park Church Choir. Jorian then strived to fulfill one of his childhood dreams: to sing on that radio station his family always listened to when he was a kid.

Jorian went up to WMBI and asked if he could be included in a show.

“I was so glad to tell my dad, ‘I’m singing on WMBI,’” he said.

That’s how everything picked up.

He started singing as a soloist on “Songs of the Night” in 1948. Jorian also had to fill in as part of a quartet one night, and the quartet decided to stay together and travel across America and Europe as the Melody Four Quartet.

After his fame with Melody Four, Jorian started singing the National Anthem for Bulls, Cubs, and Bears games. He started managing choirs at various churches and subsequently helped other people find their love for music.

“I love to sing,” Jorian said. “I love to get other people to sing. That’s part of my joy in singing and serving.”

Jorian, now 87, sits at his small, circular kitchen table in his Sun City home. He’s dressed in his navy blue button-up shirt, the one with the aircraft on it. It makes a good ice breaker.

As Jorian speaks, he taps his left foot, as if he’s keeping a constant beat. When his legs are crossed, he still taps it, living with the beat. His mustache is neatly combed down as his hair is neatly combed back in straight rows. He wears long, white socks that reach up past his calves to keep his legs warm. All that’s on his arms is a gold watch on his left wrist and a pair of bandages around each bicep. When he moved to Sun City, he wanted to keep doing what he loves.

“I thought I’d [perform frequently] here, and then I got two strokes,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

He pauses.

“I didn’t know what to do.”

But Jorian figured out things quickly.

He continues to perform as a soloist on “Songs for the Night” on WMBI. He’s been doing so for 64 years. He also performed in “Fiddler on the Roof,” and his voice hasn’t let him down.

Jorian continues to sing – or rather, serve – with thanks to God, as he maintains his service in gospel singing.

“I think the Lord has kept me so long in the singing game so I’ll still sing for his glory,” he said.

Over four decades after he was known as The Singing Pilot, Jorian can still crescendo from a low E to a high C.

I sing because I’m happy!
I sing because I’m free!

Jorian doesn’t know how long his voice will hold up, but even if it doesn’t, he will always be living with the beat.

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