Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This past week was a week for music, both within Kol Ami and out in the broader community.  

While not really new at all to our Kol Ami family, Karen Engebretson has officially become our director of music. While our music is always special, and I/we have been blessed with music directors both highly competent and caring — most recently Lara Steinel, and when I first got the pulpit, Patrick Buckley — both the beauty of the music and the emotion behind the music made for a particularly wonderful worship experience.

On Saturday night, our Kansas City Symphony featured double-bass soloist/composer Xavier Foley. Soloing on his own composition “Soul Bass,” he played an instrument that rarely (if ever) is featured in an orchestral work. My own experience with bass players is through my love of jazz, particularly Charles Mingus. Coming into the concert, I was more than a little curious as to how this was all going to unfold.

Xavier Foley was brilliant, both as a musician and as a composer. In his clearly classical piece, there were elements of Latin music and R&B. It opened up an entirely different world of music, something I always welcome and appreciate.

Our Kol Ami music was both familiar and new, all conveyed with Karen’s own personality.  Xavier Foley brought in something heretofore completely unfamiliar.  

I always approach the topic of music with some trepidation. I see our respective musical tastes and sensibilities as highly subjective. I could tell you some of the musicians/bands I don’t like, and invariably I will get some level of backlash from an ardent fan. Likewise, music I love will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Some of the more outer reaches of music to many, e.g., Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, etc., others will find completely disconcerting.

What I can say about last weekend is that it is always a joy when musicians/composers — whether performing very familiar music or presenting a new composition — put their own personality and stamp on the music. Particularly after a very long hitting streak of great music here at Kol Ami (sorry for the sports metaphor), the challenge is in how to be next. 

I can say with absolute certainty that Karen will be a wonderful next. She has and will continue to put her own personality into the music — and whether that is in music or in what I do as rabbi, who we are is the most important thing we have to give — giving us both the familiar that we can immediately connect with and something new for us to expand and grow.

Finally, this sense of joy made me think of a simple statement from Bobby McFerrin — we all must “sing for our lives.”