In December, I witnessed the phenomenon that is Straight No Chaser, nine men who sing a cappella. They sold out Embassy Theatre as they have for well over a decade.

I was amazed not only by their performance but also by the thousands of fans of all ages and what a great time they were having.

If you’re a fan of artists like Jacob Collier, Pentatonix, and Straight No Chaser, and other groups singing with an R&B, jazz, or gospel flavor — from the hitmakers on down to the vocal groups at your university, church, or school — we’ve got news. 

The greatest influence and inspiration for that tradition is performing at The Clyde Theatre on Friday, April 26. 

We’re talking about Take 6.

Something different

Take 6 broke out with their eponymous debut album in 1988, which sold more than a million copies. 

These six men created a unique sound almost entirely with their own voices, without a band, which is what “a cappella” means if you are not familiar with the term. 

This was the ’80s, when pop music was awash in electronic sounds. Take 6, in contrast, sang the purest form of acoustic music, with a positive vibe in an era of cynicism. 

They were on a mainstream major music label, but hewed close to their gospel roots. The six men made it on sheer talent and the power of their message, singing original songs and arrangements and self-producing their recordings. Songs like “Spread Love” and “I L-O-V-E U” appealed to fans across genres.

I spoke with tenor Claude V. McKnight III from his home in Los Angeles. 

McKnight founded the group in 1980 at Oakwood University, a liberal arts college in the Seventh-day Adventist Church tradition in Huntsville, Alabama. Oakwood is home to a world-renowned large gospel choir of men and women, The Aeolians. 

McKnight, a freshman music major, wanted to recruit his own small group of men. 

“Literally, the second week of school, I started a group,” he said. 

Gospel was in the mix, “but for me and for most of the guys in the group, we were more influenced by instrumental music. I grew up playing the trombone, so I listen to a lot of jazz bands: Woody Herman & The Thundering Herd, The Stan Kenton Band, Glenn Miller, The Quincy Jones Orchestra, all of those kinds of groups. 

“That’s how and why we started doing the kind of music that we do. We wanted to sing that and basically replace the horns and everything with voices.”

High demand

Take 6’s distinctive style features unexpected twists and turns in modulations. 

“The sound of Take 6 is pretty much from the brain of Mark Kibble, the resident genius arranger in the group, even though we all arrange,” McKnight said. “Cedric Dent has the Ph.D., and Mervyn Warren was very instrumental early on, but what comes from Mark’s brain still amazes us. We can bring a song to him and know that it’s going to have that Mark treatment to it.”

Take 6 call themselves “the most awarded a cappella group in history.” With 16 albums, 10 Grammy awards, 10 Gospel Music Association Dove awards, and further accolades, they have contributed to film soundtracks and collaborated with major artists and bands in R&B and jazz. 

Collier featured Take 6, with the students in the Oakwood Aeolians, on his 2018 album Djesse Vol. 1. You can see Take 6 sitting in with jazz bands in New York now and then. 

It’s even broader than that.

“Very fortunately, from the beginning of our career, we have been able to tour internationally,” McKnight said. “We do Europe three or four times a year. We’ve toured Asia many times, we’ve done Australia, we’ve done South America. Even where we don’t have an album out, we’re able to tour around the world. That feels good because we’re able to take this message of love to everyone, regardless of whether or not they speak English or we speak their language.”

The Beat goes on

Founding member Warren left in the ’90s for a career as a composer and producer, collaborating with Quincy Jones and scoring and arranging for Hollywood films. In 2011, Dent left to become a music professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

Today, Take 6 are the four original members Alvin Chea on bass and McKnight, Dave Thomas, and Kibble on tenor and those amazing falsetto high harmonies. The newer members are Joey Kibble, tenor, and Khristian Dentley, baritone.

On this tour, Take 6 sing their original songs and a few choice pop covers, including a tribute to another Black a cappella group that emerged in the ’80s, South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo. 

And they’ll tease some works in progress from their next project. 

“Rhapsody, which is a straight-ahead jazz album,” McKnight said. “I’m talking not about the American songbook, but Giant Steps from (John) Coltrane, and those kinds of songs that weren’t considered to be vocal music, but we decided to tackle them.”

If you go to the concert, look forward to singing along since audience participation is a part of what Take 6 does. They’re known for leading audiences to sing in harmony, on the spot, and that can be quite an experience. 

It’s obvious the six members of Take 6 have amazing musical skills and have spent decades practicing that craft. Yet McKnight emphasizes that underneath all that, music is a gift they have been given. 

“There is a spirit that happens in almost all of music, you know, whether or not it’s gospel or anything else, that will get into the soul of other people,” he said. “So you have to be very careful because music is so powerful. We try to use it in as best a way that we can, knowing that it doesn’t come from us. So we treat it very importantly, and treat it in love.”