Take 6
Take 6 is setting a spiritually provocative standard. Their jazz-styled religious and secular a capella sound is grounded in a profound commitment to Christian ethos. “We sing lyrics that always exemplify our spiritual and moral convictions,” says David Thomas. Therefore, mixing the improvisational style found in African-American classical music and jazz, with the soul-stirring authenticity of gospel and spirituals, the sextet testifies, preaches, scats, claps their hands, snaps their fingers, and sings with a synergistic conviction inspired by “the One who directs the work in their lives, the One who has made Take 6 one of the success stories in American music,” says Mark Kibble. In that sense, Take 6 is an example of American musical genius. Collectively, these African-American male role models are, as Dr. Cedric Dent says of genius, a group possessing “an innate intellectual [and] creative ability.”
This genius began in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). Legend has it that the group’s musical narrative began in a bathroom on the campus. Although the group was known to practice in the bathroom of Moran Hall, an institutional landmark on the campus where students often hold concerts and other activities in the auditorium, Take 6’s story began officially at the Gentlemen’s Estates, an old male dorm on the campus. Hence, the original name of the group was Gentlemen’s Quartet. The group changed its name to Alliance; however, in 1987, the group’s name was eventually changed to Take 6. That same year they signed with the Nashville division of Warner Brothers and produced their first self-named album Take 6. For that album, the group received three Grammy Awards.
One may ask about the group’s successful longevity. How have these six men managed to remain together for more than 20 years after marriage and children and living on the East and West coasts? Answer: the members of this Christ-centered sextet are driven by the calling God has placed on their lives as a musical ensemble. They understand that Take 6 does not belong to the six male singers; it is “God’s group,” says Dr. Dent. “He sets the agenda. We see ourselves as a ministry that is larger than the six of us.”
This ministry has garnered an impressive fan base for the group. One longtime fan, Aleah Faulkner of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said that she appreciates the group because in their music they “glorify the Lord in an age when many young artists and young people are influenced by the negative aspects of rap music.” The ministry has also earned the group an impressive list of accomplishments. They have been awarded 10 Grammys, 10 Doves, and a Soul Train Award. They have also been nominated twice for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Image Award, and they have been blessed to appear on stage with such musical geniuses as Stevie Wonder and jazz great Wynton Marsalis.
The group’s national professional accomplishments began with the production of their first album, Take 6. Their latest album, The Standard, features George Benson, Al Jarreau, Jon Hendricks, Roy Hargrove, Till Branner, Aaron Neville, and Brian McKnight (Claude's brother). The album is critically challenging in that the sextet has pushed the Christian envelope featuring African-American secular classics such as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Including this classic and others like it such as “Sweet Georgia Brown” is a tribute to African-American musical icons. It is also indicative of the group’s cross-genre appeal and their wholistic spirituality. Songs such as “What’s Going On” showcase the group’s desire to bring attention to the issues plaguing contemporary society. The lyrics of this song, released in 1971 by Marvin Gaye, are appropriate for twenty-first-century America as African-Americans and other cultural groups are still attempting to find out “what is going on” as they interrogate minds that fashion a nation where “far too many [brothers] are dying” in a “war [that] is not the answer.” Take 6, moreover, is centered in a spiritually practical paradigm in which Christians understand the importance of “gathering at the river,” a river that “flows by the throne of God” for the purpose of improving the quality of life on earth and for preparing people for heaven. The group’s purpose in this album replicates the theme of all their albums, “to be a light in the world, not just a light in the church world.” “We have more places for the soles of our feet to tread,” says Alvin Chea.
Driven by their commitment to and appreciation of God’s gift to them “to spread God’s love through music” the members of Take 6 are “treading feet,” indeed. One member of the group, Joey Kibble, is humbled by the divine appointment God has given the sextet. He says, “Take 6 is a story of screwups that were saved by God. He gave us this mission to save us.” Their mission has saved many, and continues to inspire the sextet to proceed forward. In the future their fans can expect a Christmas CD, and they will continue to tour nationally and internationally.
Take 6 is remaining faithful to the divine instructions God imparted upon the disciples in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (verse 19). They are fulfilling their mission through a music that has called many to seek a quality standard of life.
Take 6, the Christian, classically trained jazz sextet, nurtured and birthed at a historically African-American institution, is setting a musical norm: They are defining a spiritual standard.
RAMONA L. HYMAN, Ph.D., is an associate professor of humanities at Loma Linda University.
References
Take 6. 15 March 2009 <http://www.take6.com/?content=home>. Dent, Cedric. Telephone interview. 22 March 2009. Kibble, Joey. Take 6 In Concert. Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA. 28 February 2009. The Teacher’s Bible. The Standard. Producer, Mark Kibble.
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