TAKE 6

Formed: 1985, Huntsville, Alabama

Members: Alvin Chea, bass (born San Francisco, California, 2 November 1967); Cedric Dent, baritone (born Detroit, Michigan, 24 September 1962); Joey Kibble, second tenor (born Buffalo, New York, 16 May 1971); Mark Kibble, first tenor (born Bronx, New York, 7 April 1964); Claude V. McKnight III, first tenor (born Brooklyn, New York, 2 October 1962); David Thomas, second tenor (born Brooklyn, New York, 23 October 1966). Former member: Mervyn E. Warren, second tenor (born 29 February 1964).

Genre: Jazz, Gospel, Doo-Wop

Best-selling album since 1990: Join the Band (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "Spread Love," "Straighten Up and Fly Right"

Take 6 is an innovative and trend-setting male vocal group that has earned more Grammy Award nominations than any other gospel or soul vocal ensemble, and has racked up an unbroken string of gold- and platinum-selling albums since its debut in 1988. Although all its members are committed Christians and its songs all convey a religious message to some degree, the group's sound is as secular as it is spiritual, and its music is meant to be enjoyed by believers and nonbelievers alike.

Mark Kibble, a student at Oakwood College, a Seventh-day Adventist institution in Huntsville, Alabama, joined "The Gentlemen's Estate Quartet," a barbershop harmony group led by his childhood acquaintance, freshman Claude V. McKnight, upon hearing them rehearse in a dorm bathroom in 1980. Subsequently Kibble invited Mervyn E. Warren, whom he knew from high school, into the group, which performed its unaccompanied gospel repertoire under the name "Alliance." When the ensemble's second tenor, baritone, and bass graduated from school and left town in 1985, they were replaced by Cedric Dent, David Thomas, and Alvin Chea. In 1987 the sextet was signed by Warner Bros., Nashville, and changed its name to Take 6.

Take 6's members have musical backgrounds, crossover tastes, and expansive ambitions. The Kibbles' father was minister of what Mark describes as "a very musical church." McKnight's grandfather, Fred Willis Sr., was a church choir director; and as a child McKnight attended his mother's rehearsals and learned to play trombone, which he says advanced his ear training. Chea has detailed his debt to jazz musicians such as Ron Carter for his "walking bass" vocal style.

Dent is a serious academic, who earned a Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Maryland in 1997. (He wrote his dissertation on the harmonic development of the black religious quartet singing tradition.) A frequent university guest lecturer, he hosted a Nashville Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television station's music education series for children titled "Music to My Ears" in 1999, and has served as the music minister in several churches. Founding member Warren, since leaving Take 6 in 1991, has established himself as an independent music and film producer, working with such acclaimed musicians as Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand, Smokey Robinson, and the Manhattan Transfer.

Rich voices, swinging arrangements, righteous lyrics, and overall exuberance earned Take 6 (1988), the group's debut album, two Grammy Awards and Top 10 appearances on Billboard magazine's Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Christian charts. These kudos put the group on the path to innumerable Down Beat magazine poll honors and Dove Awards from the Gospel Association. Take 6 sings original compositions and refreshed versions of traditional and standard spirituals such as "David and Goliath" and Thomas Dorsey's "If We Never Needed the Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now)." They emphasize a warmly accessible, contemporary musicality—complete with finger-snapping, added percussion, and subtle electronic enhancements—rather than insistent preaching or folkloric purism. The group also brings out the spiritual side of soul songs such as Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You" and Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready."

The group added instrumentation to its a cappella arrangements for one track on its third record, So Much to Say (1990), and also for Join the Band (1994), on which Ray Charles, Queen Latifah, Stevie Wonder, and Herbie Hancock guest star. Brothers (1996), produced by McKnight's brother Brian, a successful songwriter, has not even one a cappella track, which provoked concern from Take 6's core audience, but the group returned to the unaccompanied format on So Cool, varying arrangements to incorporate Ladysmith Black Mambazo–influenced South African choral singing as well as a quasi-big band track. Beautiful World (2002) was co-produced by Marcus Miller, the electric bassist who served as Miles Davis's producer during the mid-1980s; he, too, added select smooth jazz instrumentation to the ensemble's voices, without discernible harm. The faith-based entertainment of Take 6 clearly comforts audiences in times of stress; the band won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for singing "Love's in Need of Love Today" with Stevie Wonder on the America: A Tribute to Heroes telecast in 2001.

Besides promoting Christianity and a cappella singing, Take 6 has had a significant and direct influence on secular pop singing groups such as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC and on a cappella soloist Bobby McFerrin.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Take 6 (Reprise, 1988); So Much 2 Say (Warner Alliance, 1990); He Is Christmas (Reprise, 1991); Join the Band (Warner Alliance, 1994); Brothers (Reprise, 1996); So Cool (Warner Bros., 1998); The Greatest Hits (Reprise, 1999); We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Reprise, 1999); Tonight: Live (Reprise, 2000); Beautiful World (Warner Bros., 2002). With Nnenna Freelon: Soulcall (Concord, 2000).

howard mandel