Knight & Co. put zip in LDS hymns

In a performance unlike any ever hosted in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, Grammy award-winner Gladys Knight and company gave a whole new meaning to the kind of gospel music the building has traditionally played host to.

Performing Sunday night with her Saints Unified Voices Choir from Las Vegas, Knight, her friends, family members and a Tabernacle filled to capacity celebrated the 25th anniversary of the LDS Church's announcement allowing black Latter-day Saints to hold the faith's priesthood. Sponsored by Genesis — a church-sponsored organization for black members — the evening was filled with toe-tapping, hand-clapping, bench-thumping music praising Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

Several numbers were gospel versions of sacred hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said once when she was singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, church President Gordon B. Hinckley "expressed a little concern that I may not feel very excited about our hymns.

"I do love the music of this church," Knight told those gathered. "I just think that some of it could use a little zip!" she said, to applause from the audience.

Knight thanked President Hinckley and other church leaders for their encouragement and urged the audience to widen their embrace of the cultures, music and customs of all people. Using her love of ice cream as an analogy, she said as she visits congregations around the world, she's noticed that "some congregations are mostly vanilla, some are mostly chocolate, according to the makeup of the immediate community.

"But the most enjoyable sight for me to see is a congregation made of fudge ripple, that vanilla and chocolate blended together."

She emphasized that the "face of this church throughout the world is changing" fulfilling the prophecy by the apostle John that the gospel would go to "every nation, kindred, tongue and people." She spoke of the Book of Mormon account following Christ's visit to the Americas, where people of different ethnicities were no longer divided and there were no more manner of "ites" or divisions among the people based on race or culture. "I like that."

As a musician from childhood, Knight said her mother used to tell her that God had given her a musical gift to share. Since she was baptized into the LDS Church several years ago, along with her other family members, Knight said she knows now that God has a larger purpose for her gift as she uses it to spread the gospel.