Claude McKnight, together with Alvin Chea, Mark Kibble, Joey Kibble, Cedric Dent and David Thomas, have been a united force as Take 6 for years. The group has essentially retained the same personnel since their debut (Joey Kibble joined the group several years ago to replace departed original member Mervyn Warren).

Considering how often other groups have changed members over the years, it’s a remarkable achievement, and one which McKnight has a simple explanation.

He spoke with Gospelflava.com.

“We attribute our togetherness to taking everything to God in prayer. The genuine love for what we do allows us to remain intact as a group.”

McKnight went on to acknowledge the importance of staying fresh in the ever-changing music industry: “The toughest part about it is just trying to stay ahead of what we think the public wants and staying true to who we are”.

Few would argue their success in that area. Take 6 is one of those rare groups that has been greeted with welcome arms on both the Gospel and the mainstream circuit, including jazz and pop circles. And yet, the group has never compromised their Gospel message.

“It’s easy for us to stay grounded in the Gospel since because that's who we are, and because that's our base,” McKnight explains. “I think, business-wise for us, we would like to have more mainstream success in the area of CD sales. We've received a lot of critical acclaim, but, to tap into that mainstream arena would be an accomplishment for us.”

Perhaps their latest album, Beautiful World, will be the avenue to that.

In so many ways, Take 6 has always taken the experimental approach to music. Their bravado was there on their very first album, their eponymously-titled debut that stunned all musical circles with its ingenious spirituals-based acappella. The daring is still present on their most recent project.

On Beautiful World, the group has pulled together a series of songs that are at once familiar —many are hits from the worlds of pop, rock and R&B— and also brand new due to the Take 6 context that they’ve been dropped into.

McKnight explains how Take 6 continues to reinvent itself.

“I think it's a little easier for us because we’re six people in the group. We have different tastes when it comes to music; that enables us to push ourselves further as a group.”

At the same time —and it’s not a contradiction — it is the commonality of their roots that makes them the epitome of a tight unit. Having met at Huntsville, Alabama’s famed Oakwood College, they found a shared interest in close-harmony Gospel, obviously rooted in the deep history of the quartet.

“The Breath of Life Quartet, a Seventh Day Adventist group also out of Oakwood, were our predecessors so to speak”, explains McKnight.

While maybe not as popular nowadays, it you look it up, you’d see that that particular acappella group was essential in their day. Group member Walter Arties also spearheaded a choir that made a name for itself in the late 1960’s with an album on Atlantic Records titled James Cleveland Presents The Walter Arties Chorale. The Breath of Life Quartet still records quietly today, on their own Breath of Life record label.

While that previous Oakwood College-based quartet was an acknowledged inspiration to them, the formative Take 6 also looked up to other legendary Gospel entities. McKnight elaborates, "The Swan Silvertones were a great influence on Take 6. They recorded the first version of ‘Mary Don't You Weep’”.

That’s a song that appeared on Take 6’s very first album, and one that is still a fan favorite and a mainstay in their concert repertoire.

The Beautiful World album contains another song in similar style, a straight acappella version of Thomas Dorsey’s “Peace In The Valley”. But for the most part, the group ventures off into uncharted waters on the project.

Album: Beautiful World

Several songs seem destined to become classics. Take 6’s interpretation of “Wade In The Water” is one of those, with Alvin Chea’s walking vocal bass line anchoring the cut, amidst muted trumpet from Mitchell Stewart. The cover of the Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” is another.... See full album review.

Joining with accomplished contemporary jazz bassist Marcus Miller, much of the project’s production is placed in hands. Judging from the result, it seems that Take 6 has found a comrade in musical approach.

“We first met Marcus Miller while he was working on the David Sanborn Sunday Night Show, back in the late 80's. Marcus is such a well rounded musician and his producing style is so laid back. Musically speaking, I feel that we feed off each other,” says McKnight.

Covering songs as diverse as Sting’s “Fragile”, Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” and Donnie Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, featuring his daughter Lalah Hathaway, the group succeeds in bringing the familiar to us in a fresh and enjoyable way.

McKnight confesses that “one of the secrets to remaking a favorite song is to retain enough what made the song musically popular in the first place. One potential pitfall is if you venture off from what made the song popular in the first place”.

As to what’s next, McKnight says that Take 6 is open to many possibilities. They’ve worked with and collaborated with so many big names in the industry, but there are still some other situations that they are eager to explore.

“Yes, we've worked with a lot of the legends and luminaries in the past, but I think we would want to collaborate with some of the newer rap and hip-hop artists, or some of the younger pop and urban talent because that's so different from what we do as a group.”

Time will tell, but one thing for sure, it will be a fascinating listen.