Saying goodbye: Saratoga gears up to celebrate the life of Joel Moss
You're invited: How Joel Moss' music legacy — from Talking Heads to Jazz Pebbles — will be celebrated Downtown with hours of public performances.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Joel Moss was a once-in-a-lifetime artist, community figure and friend who passed away on Sept. 15 in Saratoga. Known as much around town for his influence and dedication to art as for the many Grammys he won as a recording engineer and music producer, he’s inspired the community in so many far-reaching ways.
And now Saratoga is gearing up to say goodbye, with a celebration of life fitting for the legacy of a man who worked with hundreds of artists during his six-decade long career.
“Where the Music Never Dies: A Celebration of Joel Moss” on Oct. 14 is open to everyone and will include several hours of musical performances in his honor, emphasizing the people Moss did projects with.
The service will begin at the Katrina Trask staircase in Congress Park, where attendees will gather and then begin the rousing parade — dancing and clapping led by New Orleans’ Glen David Andrews and a 2nd Line brass band — to Caffè Lena, which served as Moss’ de facto second home. Performances will begin at about 5:30 and play on a screen outside for all of Downtown to enjoy. It will be an in-person and virtual event.
“He was the best friend of so many people,” says Sarah Craig, Caffè Lena’s long-time executive director and close friend of Moss. “He had so many relationships throughout the music world.”
Chuck Lamb will also honor Moss at tomorrow’s Jazz @ Caffe Lena series, which the two friends created together and co-hosted for the past eight years
Moss worked primarily in New York and Los Angeles during the peak of his career, before landing in Saratoga — where he had first found himself as a teenager, when he hit Caffè Lena while touring with a folk band called the Hi-Lighters that he had formed in his hometown of Detroit.
“It’s a coincidence to an extent,” Craig says. “But I think it set the stage for him to bring value to Caffè Lena”
Moss eventually settled down in Saratoga — at first part-time while he continued to work with artists at major recording studios in New York and L.A. — after meeting his second wife, Saratoga photographer Terri-Lynn Pellegri.
His work as the broadcast and sound technician at Caffè Lena has been pivotal to the establishment. In 2018, Moss established the recording archive, creating a digital archive of all of the concerts as a recording engineer.
“He believed everything needed to be recorded for posterity, so we have an incredible treasure trove of everything that’s happened here,” Craig says. “He used to say, ’I want to have the deck turned when the next Bob Dylan plays on stage.’”
In conjunction with the digital archive, Moss set up and championed the live stream at Caffè Lena, which will now allow fans from all over the world to watch his celebration of life. His very last recording project was recording the Jazz Pebbles, an ensemble of four children ages 10-13 from the Caffè Lena School of Music.
“He was on cloud nine that evening.” Craig says of Moss’s enthusiasm over the experience he’d been able to give them and their futures in music. “He loved this whole school of music project.” Moss was passionate about taking the music school to the next level and finding a designated space for it. “We were just getting these conversations started,” Craig adds.
During his storied music career, Moss worked with The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, The Eagles, Joe Crocker, Talking Heads and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Between 2003 and 2015, Moss won seven Grammy’s, including the production of the of the cast recording of In The Heights and the recording of Ray Charles’ album You Don’t Know Me.
For more information on Joel Moss’ Celebration of Life on Oct. 14, visit caffelena.org.
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