Music Notes 4-21-24
In a couple of weeks, on May 5th, we’ll be welcoming back our marvelous band. It’s always a treat to have them with us, as it brings a musical expansiveness that you just can’t find anywhere else. That day, we’ll be doing the closing song from the movie Sister Act, featuring our terrific alto Tracy, as well as barnburners like 10,000 Reasons and One Bread, One Body. Spread the word, tell your friends, shout it from the rooftops – they’ll never get music and worship like this anywhere else.
The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a non-denominational, multi-cultural church in the heart of downtown Brooklyn that began as a small congregation worshiping in a rundown building, and has grown into a congregation of over 16,000. The husband and wife team of Pastor Jim Cymbala and music director Carol Cymbala took over leadership of the 30 member congregation in 1971. By the 1980’s, the church had grown enough to purchase the 1383-seat Carlton Theatre and convert it into their sanctuary. By 2002, they had outgrown that facility and purchased Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre, and renovated it into a state-of-the-art, 3,200-seat worship facility.
The choir began with just 9 members in 1971 and grew with the church. Carol Cymbala began writing music for the choir, and they recorded their first album in the 1980’s. Now numbering over 280 members, their music is sung all over the world, and they sang at the 2013 inauguration of President Obama. All I Want Is You, Lord is a typical example of the kinds of music they do – richly harmonic, memorable melodies, and verses that are sung by a soloist with the choruses sung or supported by the choir. Think About His Love is an arrangement of a song by local composer Walt Harrah (The Lord Is My Light) by Carol Cymbala and was released on the album “Live…We Come Rejoicing” in 1993. Walt is a friend and lives in Irvine. We sang together a few years ago in a barbershop quartet that was assembled for an episode of the TV show Living Biblically.
Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, Third Day is a Christian rock band formed at YMCA Camp High Harbour in 1991 by high-schoolers Mac Powell and Mark Lee. The name Third Day is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection on the third day after crucifixion. Over the years, like most bands, they had several different musicians playing with them and released their first independent album, Long Time Forgotten, in 1994. In 1995, they signed a contract with Reunion Records and released their second album Third Day in 1996. That year they were nominated for a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year and their video Consuming Fire won a Billboard Music Award for Best Christian Video. In 2004, they released their seventh album Wire, toured the U.S. and Europe, collaborated on Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ, played at the Republican National Convention and were featured on 60 Minutes. Their hit single, Soul On Fire, is from their album Soul On Fire of 2014, and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 2 on Hot Christian Songs and No. 3 on Christian Digital Songs. Their song God Of Wonders was released in 2003 on the album Offerings II: All I Have To Give.