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November 26, 1999/17 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.13
Rabbi shares musical gift
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Rabbi Joe Black doesn't mind being compared to actor Brad Pitt.
"I've gotten a lot of mileage out of 'Meet Joe Black,'" Black explains, referring to Pitt's character, Joe Black, in the recent film. There is one moniker, though, that makes Black cringe.
"Whatever you do, don't call me 'the singing rabbi.'"
The senior rabbi of the Reform Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, N.M., and a songwriter and singer on the contemporary Jewish music scene, Black prefers to be known simply as a spiritual leader who happens to have been blessed musically.
The Valley's Jewish community will be able to experience Black's music when he performs a special Hanukkah concert on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 7 p.m. at Desert Vista High School, 16440 S. 32nd Place in Phoenix.
Black, 40, has recorded four compact discs, three of which - "Rabbi Joe Black Sings!", "Aleph Bet Boogie" and "Everybody's Got a Little Music" - are for children. Songs from those recordings are sung throughout the country in religious schools. His latest release, "Leave a Little Bit Undone," consists of a dozen of his own songs based on biblical and liturgical texts. Black also has produced a songbook and two videos for children.
Black says he tries to keep his traveling commitments down to six per year. In addition, he participates in one scholar-in-residence program each month.
"I am not on the road all of the time," Black says. "I'm (at Congregation Albert) almost every Shabbat. ... I am not making a career of music. That's not who I am. There's part of me that's a musician, and it's a big part. ... But my main calling is that of a congregational rabbi."
Raised in Evanston, Ill., Black acted on his love for music during his high school years, he recalls, when he taught music at various religious schools, led songs at Jewish summer camps and for local youth groups.
Black attended Northwestern University in Evanston, where he received a bachelor's degree in education in 1982. Throughout college, he did local cantorial work, hosted a Jewish Chicago-based television program called "The Magic Door," and played music in secular nightclubs throughout Chicago. He took one year off from his studies to "see if music was what I wanted to do full time."
"But," he continues, "I realized during that year that as much as I loved music, I missed both the intellectual challenge of my studies and the spiritual connection (to) the Jewish community."
Black went on to study at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he earned a master's degree and rabbinic ordination in 1987. That same year, he got his first job as a rabbi in Minneapolis at Temple Israel, where he served as assistant rabbi, then as associate rabbi. During this time in Minneapolis, he was president of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association. In 1996, he took the job in Albuquerque, where he lives with his wife, Sue, and their children, Elana, 8, and Ethan, 5. Black's own children are "very excited by music," he says.
Black began touching Jewish children across the country with music by happenstance while living in Minneapolis. There, he was involved with his congregation's nursery and religious school music program. One day, the nursery school fund-raising committee asked him if he would perform a concert to benefit the school. He agreed to create some Hanukkah songs for a holiday concert. The following year, the nursery school committee asked Black to make a tape of songs that they could sell to benefit the school. That's when "Rabbi Joe Black Sings!" was created. Part original recordings and part traditional children's folk songs, the recording won national attention, and Black soon found himself working on "Aleph Bet Boogie."
"I worked with some wonderful musicians (on that), and it became very successful very quickly," he says.
Since 1991, Black has lectured and performed at the annual Coalition for Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE) conference. Recently, he was recognized by Moment Magazine as one of the top 10 male performers in contemporary Jewish music for adults and children.
Currently, he is under contract with his first record label, Sounds Write, based in San Diego. It was Randee Friedman, owner of the company, who approached Black and asked him to produce an adult album -- "Leave a Little Bit Undone," which, says Friedman, has a "James Taylor feel to it." Friedman has also produced recordings for contemporary Jewish musicians Debbie Friedman (no relation to Randee) and Julie Silver.
"We thought (Black) was so good that we wanted to make his albums come to life," comments Randee Friedman.
While his own congregation of some 630 families is treated to occasional "Black concerts," Black does not do the cantorial work during services. Cantor Jacqueline Shuchat-Marx, who also performs concerts around the country, does.
"I couldn't be in a congregation that didn't have a cantor," Black explains, "because I need to do the rabbinic part of my work, and I don't want to be in a position where I need to do both and can't (give adequate attention to each job)."
As long as he can write music, perform and lead a congregation, he plans to continue on both the musical and rabbinical paths, he says.
"Music is one of the many tools God has given us that brings a love and excitement of Judaism, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing."
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