Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College concludes their 2010 Headliners series with We Wish You a Merry Christmas, a holiday concert by the Grammy-winning Christian vocal jazz group Take 6 on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 8pm.
The Take 6 story began at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1980, when freshman Claude V. McKnight III formed a quartet known as the Gentlemen's Estate Club. When tenor Mark Kibble heard the group rehearsing in - of all places - a campus restroom, he joined in the harmonies and performed onstage with the group that same night. Mervyn Warren joined shortly after, and the group briefly took the name of Alliance. They performed in local churches and on campus for the next few years, with personnel changing frequently as older members graduated and new voices arrived on campus to replace them.
After college, the group signed with the Warner Brothers label in 1987 and changed their name to Take 6. Their self-titled debut album, released the following year, scored two Grammy Awards and landed in the top ten on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Christian charts. The group's swinging, harmony-rich gospel sound attracted a flurry of attention, and the group went on to record or perform with numerous jazz luminaries, including Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder.
The 1990 follow-up album, So Much 2 Say, was equally successful, climbing to the number two spot on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart and scoring a Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. Warren left the group a year later to pursue a career as a producer. He was replaced by Joey Kibble, Mark's younger brother.
The group added instrumentation to their purely a cappella sound beginning with the 1991 holiday release, He Is Christmas. The album scored yet another Grammy, this time for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. A string of finely crafted recordings continued throughout the remainder of the decade: Join the Band (1994), Brothers (1996), So Cool (1998) and a second holiday album, We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1999). Join the Band and Brothers were both Grammy winners.
In 2000, Take 6 released a live recording and a best-of collection, followed by Beautiful World in 2002. The group left Warner Brothers after Beautiful World and launched their own Take 6 label. Their maiden voyage in the new venture was Feels Good, released in 2006.
Take 6 joined Heads Up International with the release of The Standard in August 2008. The album includes guest appearances by R&B luminaries Aaron Neville and Brian McKnight (Claude's brother), as well as veteran jazzmen George Benson, Al Jarreau and Jon Hendricks. "While we sing lyrics that always exemplify our spiritual and moral convictions, what we really are at the core is a jazz vocal group," says Dave Thomas, a member of the Take 6 lineup since 1985. "So we decided to do an album of jazz standards, a record that will stand up as the jazz vocal album for all time." The Standard garnered three Grammy nominations in 2009 for Best Gospel Performance, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.
Teaming again with Heads Up Records, Take 6 will soon release their next, long awaited Christmas album of timeless vocals; a collection of holiday favorites and classic Christmas standards, celebrating "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' 2009-2010 Headliners Series is sponsored by Con Edison.About Brooklyn Center for the Performing ArtsTake 6: We Wish You a Merry Christmas at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College
2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn
(2 train to Brooklyn College/Flatbush Avenue)
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 8pm
Tickets: $42/$32 ($45/$35 at the door)
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges generous support from the Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Assembly and Speaker Sheldon Silver; Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Senate and Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson; Members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York City Council and Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Kate Levin.
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