Remembering Joel Moss: Grammy Winner, Mentor, Caffè Lena champion.
Music lovers far and wide mourn the passing of Joel Moss (1946–2025), beloved friend, producer, mentor, and tireless champion of Caffè Lena.
Joel believed that the Caffè is a national treasure. A seven-time Grammy Award-winning producer who worked with legends such as Johnny Cash, Tony Bennett, The Talking Heads, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joel spent nearly every evening for the past several years at the Caffè running livestream cameras, capturing the shows for posterity, and helping us dream big. We invite you to learn how you can help Caffè Lena preserve Joel’s legacy and vision.
His faith elevated Caffè Lena, and we are forever richer because of him.
A Visionary at the Soundboard
Joel’s final recording session, just two days before his passing, was with the Jazz Pebbles — a group of 10–13 year-old students from the Caffè Lena School of Music. Together they recorded three songs on September 13, 2025. Joel was excited about the current and potential impact of our School of Music, where kids fall in love with making music together, form bands, learn to jam, discover American roots music, and even begin writing and arranging their own songs. He understood the power of these early experiences because this was how he started his own journey in music. At age 12 he joined Detroit’s Hebrew folk band The Hi-Liters, enjoyed touring with the band, and even played at Caffè Lena at the age of 14!
Joel was eager to help us accommodate our growing student body, taking part in discussions about how to fund the acquisition of adequate space, gear and curriculum options.
The Joel Moss Fund: Securing the Future of Music
To carry forward Joel’s legacy and vision, we are establishing The Joel Moss Fund for the Caffè Lena School of Music.
Since our School began in 2020, our in-person classes have taken place in the performance space. While that setting has been inspiring and convenient for developing our teaching techniques and building a School community, it limits what we can offer and we are now bursting at the seams. We have no evening hours available for working adults and busy kids, and there’s constant setup and breakdown because of our hybrid concert/class space.
With your support, The Joel Moss Fund will help us house our growing class offerings and launch The Joel Moss Recording Program, enabling our students to experience the satisfaction and discipline of creating high quality recordings of their own work, and those taking place on the Caffè stage.
About the Caffe Lena School of Music
With all instruction done in small, friendly groups, our students learn through mentorship, close listening and collaboration. There’s no sheet music–just a circle of people supporting and tuning into each other. Students, both youth and adult, join the program for all sorts of reasons: to develop new skills, to connect with a circle of friends, or to find musical collaborators. Whatever brings them, the benefits are the same. As Joel believed, music is the thread weaving together a productive, creative, healthy community.
Where the Music Never Dies
In 2017, Joel created this video to raise money for Caffè Lena’s renovation. He wrote the song, “Where The Music Never Dies.” We share it here in his memory.