Knight cherishes last duet with Charles

When the Grammys were handed out Sunday night, Gladys Knight was not on hand to get the one for her gospel duet with the late Ray Charles.

"I was doing a fireside in Las Vegas," she said. Her programs are so popular they have to be divided into two sessions, "and my bishop came up to me in between them and said, 'You won! You won!' I was so surprised."

Any time your peers give you an award, there's a feeling of satisfaction, but this one was "awesome for what we did. I know Ray is an icon in many lives, but he's certainly one in mine."

They worked together often. "I was so honored to be asked to do the duet. Then when I went down to go into the studio, I had a sad feeling — you know how the spirit tells you it's not going to be long for someone. But when we got into the studio, he became his old self. Afterward, we hugged and kissed and said our goodbyes. And not long after that, he died."

The Grammy was the latest in a long line of awards and accolades that have come Knight's way over a career that has included No. 1 hits in pop, R&B and adult contemporary music, as well as stints on screen and stage. As they say, the great ones endure, and she has long been recognized as one of the greatest — the queen of soul, the diva of R&B.

But Knight has recently added another title to her resume — that of choir director. It was to introduce her latest CD, "One Voice," a collection of hymns and gospel classics performed with the Saints Unified Voices, that brought her to Salt Lake City on Valentine's Day. She performed a mini-concert as part of Deseret Book's midwinter Music Revue in the ZCMI Center and took a few minutes to reflect on this latest project.

"I love directing the choir. I have a real passion for it. It was not something I aspired to, but I'm overjoyed with the position that I'm allowed to hold in directing this choir."

The SUV choir, as it is known, is made up of LDS singers in the Las Vegas area, and Knight was called to be the director. "We started doing firesides, and people asked us where they could get the music," she said. One thing led to another, and the CD was produced in partnership with Shadow Mountain and Deseret Book.

It was released nationwide early in January. "The first week, it ran up the charts. It was No. 2 on Billboard's gospel charts."

Which in itself is pretty amazing, but the best thing about the CD, she said, is the idea behind it. "It's diverse, it brings all people and cultures together to praise God with one voice."

It includes Baptist songs and some slightly jazzed-up hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as contemporary gospel songs, "but they're all beautiful songs and show that we're all God's children. He loves us all in that way. It doesn't matter where we live or who we are, we are all part of His army, and He wants us all to come to Him."

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