Duets: Gary and Mark make beautiful music together

A gospel-infused Jewish prayer service? Have a little faith, won't you? The idea's no surprise when you meet the musicians bringing it to life.

Pianist and arranger Mark Bloom, who is Jewish, grew up in Golden Valley immersed in Yiddish folk songs and traditional prayer melodies — and rock and blues and jazz. "Harry Belafonte and Louis Armstrong were played as loudly as my collection of the Beatles, Cream and Jefferson Airplane," Mark says.

Gary Hines, raised in the Messiah Baptist Church in Yonkers, N.Y., hung out after school at the Jewish Community Center and recalls rabbis and ministers walking "arm in arm." He and his brothers played in a Yonkers drum corps before Gary took up piano and began composing music. The six siblings moved to the Twin Cities with their mother, jazz singer Doris Hines, whose two-week gig turned into two years. At Macalester College, Gary was musical director for the school's Black Voices, which became Sounds of Blackness in 1971.

After studying theater at the University of Minnesota, Mark began merging diverse musical genres. In 1990 Mark and Minneapolis' Temple Israel clergy produced their first Jazz Shabbat. Buoyed by the positive response, Mark was eager to tap into "the captivating, soul-infused energy of modern gospel music" in the same way. He turned to Gary, whose talents he long admired.

The duo presented a gospel-styled Sabbath service in 2012 and 2013. Their next "Harmonic Convergence" is at 6 p.m. on May 8 at Temple Israel. Gary will conduct Sounds of Blackness, blending traditional liturgy and contemporary material, with Mark on keyboard. All are welcome.

"That sounded good, maestro," Gary says, as the two rehearsed recently. They run through a plaintive "Let My People Go," emblematic of their people's shared struggles, then shift to Gary's uplifting "We Give You Thanks."

"When he wrote it," Mark says, amused, "he didn't envision it would be in the middle of a Jewish service." Gary nods. "This is the essence of what Sounds is all about. We bring African-American music to all people."

"And they sing Hebrew better than we do," marvels Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, who drops by the practice to say hello.

Mark is grateful for the clergy's support, but especially thankful to Gary, whom he calls a visionary. "It's taken years to bring our two groups together in a worship setting," Mark says. "Thank God, almighty," he says, to Gary's delight, "free at last."