It’s a good thing “Come, Come Ye Saints” is so familiar to James Davis Jr. and the Third Baptist Church choir in San Francisco.
Davis Jr. recently began rehearsals with the cast as the musical director for the upcoming Broadway show Purple Rain after finishing a long stint in the same role on the western tour of Hamilton.
But last weekend he left rehearsals in New York City to jet across the country to rehearse the great pioneer anthem of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the Third Baptist choir.
Davis Jr. couldn’t miss the opportunity to be the choir’s guest director for the Sunday worship service and pastor emeritus designation service honoring the Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, a civil rights activist and Third Baptist’s pastor for the past 49 years.
Years ago, the Rev. Dr. Brown hired Davis Jr. out of Morehouse College to be Third Baptist’s music director. Davis Jr. called the outgoing pastor “legendary.”
“He’s one of the few that’s left that marched with Dr. King,” he said. “He’s a walking history book, an almanac.”
“Come, Come Ye Saints” has always been one of the Rev. Dr. Brown’s favorites, Davis Jr. said.
“The choir has historically sung ‘Come, Come Ye Saints’ going back decades,” he said. “We used to do the other arrangement that is a little more complicated, by Leroy Robertson, but Maestro (Mack) Wilberg’s arrangement was just a little more accessible, given the fact that I just got in on Friday and we only had two rehearsals to put it together.”
The Rev. Dr. Brown explained in a 2019 Church News video that “Come, Come Ye Saints” and the iconic Black spiritual “Lift Every Voice and Sing” are two of his favorites because they tell the stories of people who “excel, achieve and remain loyal to their God.”
Read the full story on the Deseret News.
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