Harmony beyond hearing

Blending six voices, Take 6 has spent a quarter century singing a mix of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues and pop.

The a cappella group loves the challenge of creating its unique sound without instruments and bringing the right message in its music.

“A cappella is just the covering that all the different genres and styles we do are wrapped in,” said Take 6 founder Claude McKnight. “We’ve always done jazz styling, R&B styling and pop styling. What makes it gospel for us is thematically. We want to bring the most positive message we can whether we’re doing a song with a gospel message or not. From the beginning, we’ve wanted to be a group that put out as much positivity as possible. Hence our first single and video was called ‘Spread Love.’ That’s something we’ve taken very seriously over the years.”

Their years together began in 1980 when McKnight enrolled at Oakwood College, a church-related school in Huntsville, Ala., where he put together a quartet. The group added a fifth voice when tenor Mark Kibble heard the group rehearsing in a campus bathroom and joined in their performance that same night.

“The school has a really rich history of a cappella groups, choirs, quartets and trios,” McKnight said. “I started a freshman quartet when I got there because I wanted to have a group. Being a Seventh-day Adventist school, almost everybody there had sung in choirs and things at church, but we didn’t really have a lot of rhythm going in with drums and such. We did a lot of our creativity in the harmonies.”

The addition of a sixth member led to a name change, first to Alliance, then, after signing with Warner Brothers Records, to Take 6.

That came shortly before McKnight’s group released its double-Grammy-winning first album in 1988.

Twenty-six years later, Take 6 is the most Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble ever, having won 10 of the awards, 10 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and a Soul Train award, and it has collaborated with the likes of Quincy Jones, Don Henley of the Eagles and Ray Charles. The group’s members other than McKnight and Kibble are Alvin Chea, Khristian Dentley, Joel Kibble and David Thomas.

McKnight acknowledges he never thought about making the group his career when he started a quartet at Oakwood.

“When you’re in college and doing something that’s basically your hobby, you don’t think that far ahead,” McKnight said. “You look up and it’s 25 years later. It’s been a blessed ride for us. It’s bigger than music for us. We’re family. It’s a ministry. It’s something more than just singing together.”

In fact, McKnight, who is the older brother of R&B singer Brian McKnight, said their shared devotion to their Christian ministry and the fact that several are related have helped keep Take 6 intact for three decades.

“All of those things have really helped us stay together,” he said.

“Any group of people, whether it’s two people or 20 people, are going to run into philosophical differences and emotional difficulties and just time to be left alone. You need to learn how to navigate through those times. That’s what we’ve been able to do. That’s probably our biggest accomplishment, not just to stay together but be together and still like each other.”

Take 6 will do as many as 100 shows in a year and often returns to the same venues every year or two. So McKnight said it’s important for both the group and the audience to have an ever-changing set.

Take 6 has to do “Spread Love,” “I L-O-V-E You” and “Biggest Part of Me” every night, he said. The group’s fans demand that. But then the rest of the show, which lasts 75 to 90 minutes, is a fresh experience for all who come, even those who have seen Take 6 often.

The group’s appearance Feb. 26 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, though, will be a different kind of program. Take 6 is part of a tribute concert, “Georgia on My Mind: Celebrating Ray Charles,” which will feature songs by the late music legend. Other acts joining Take 6 for the show will be Clint Holmes, Nnenna Freelon, Kirk Whalum, the Clark Atlanta University Band and Singers and the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir.

With no instruments to key on, those harmonies would seem to require perfect pitch.

“No, none of us have perfect pitch,” said McKnight, who sings first tenor. “What we do have is very good relative pitch. In a cappella music, what I always tell people is the most important thing is training your ear and knowing where all the parts are going so the whole ship sails.”

The ship, McKnight said, will continue sailing for the foreseeable future.

“This is what we do,” he said. “None of us want to go solo or quit. We know how to do what we do well. We enjoy doing it, and we’re going to keep doing it until people don’t want to hear us anymore.”