Jewish, Gospel Music Combines at Wolfe Park

For more than 25 years, Mark Bloom has been performing music that connects Judaism with Black Gospel. Bloom, as the musical associate at Temple Israel, has worked on Harmonic Convergence, a gospel, music-style Shabbat service at Temple Israel.

While the music connects two cultures through shared history, Judeo-Christian doctrine and fellowship, Bloom hopes his upcoming concert in collaboration with the Hurst Family Experience will lead to more events in the future.

On July 25, Bloom and the Hurst family will perform a public concert at Wolfe Park in St. Louis Park. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. and last for around an hour, Bloom said. Bloom and the Hurst family will provide vocals with Bloom’s Markavannah as the instrumental component.

Bloom has arranged pieces for theaters including the Guthrie, Illusion History Theater and Minneapolis Institute of Art. The music combines R&B and traditional spirituals with an energy to inspire dancing.

In Bloom’s Shabbat services each prayer in the chronology has been paired with a musical piece adapted to reflect the prayer’s Kavannah, Bloom said. The Hebrew can be incorporated via counterpart melodies. The melodies are then sung in tandem by a “gospel” chorale.

Songs will showcase Motown tunes like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”, and “Blowin’ in the Wind”.

July 29: 50 Years Of The Summer Of Love

After a year’s hiatus, the Minnesota musicians who brought us the tributes to Bob Dylan for seven years are back for one final concert, saluting the 50th Anniversary of 1967’s Summer of Love. St. Louis Park contributed musicians to local groups like the High Spirits, the Chancellors, the Avanties, and others. At 6:30 p.m. in Wolfe Park, a bumper crop of Minnesota’s finest rock musicians re-imagines the hit songs and the joyful anthems of the flower power generation. Musicians on the bill include Barbara Meyer, Gary Lopac, Aaron Ollswang, Jim Steinworth, New Primitives and fun surprise guest musicians. The MC is St. Louis Park’s Magic Marc Percansky. This year’s show is rain or shine, thanks to the completion of the sheltered ROC, St. Louis Park’s new covered facility adjacent to Wolfe Park.