Black played piano and trumpet during his youth, and studied music at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
[3] He moved to New York City in the mid-1960s and worked in jazz idioms in that decade with Nat Perrilliat, Roy Montrell, Ellis Marsalis, Nat Adderley and Cannonball Adderley, Joe Jones, Horace Silver, Lionel Hampton, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard, and Eric Gale.
He moved back to New Orleans near the end of the 1960s, playing there with Dr. John, James Booker, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Charles Neville, James Rivers, Earl Turbinton and the Dukes of Dixieland.
He was a session musician for Scram Records, and can be heard e.g. on Eddie Bo's single "Hook and Sling".
Black also composed; among his works are the tunes "Monkey Puzzle" and "Dee Wee", both of which were recorded by Ellis Marsalis's ensemble in the early 1960s.