Take 6 – One

Take 6

Shanachie (2012)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

“It only takes one,” according to the single, but it takes Take 6 to produce the percussive and polyphonic vocal harmonies that give the song, and the group’s latest album, its distinctive vibe.

The GRAMMY-winning Take 6 celebrate their 25^th anniversary as recording artists with One, a collection of traditional quartet songs and hymns arranged in the Take 6 style.  Included also are an original song (the title track) and a collaboration with Stevie Wonder on the lovely and inspirational “Can’t Imagine Love Without You.”

It’s the sextette’s blend of golden era quartet songs with new school harmonies that sells the album.  Take 6 opens with the Selah Jubilee Singers’ “Down Here I’ve Done My Best” and the Golden Gate Quartet’s jubilee jump, “Noah.”  They give a funky beat to “In My Heart,” a song recorded almost a century ago as “I Want to Be Like Jesus” by the Tuskegee Institute Singers and in the early 1950s by the Five Trumpets (Savoy) as “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian.” 

Later, Take 6 channels the Harmonizing Four during its 1950s Vee Jay Records era.  Bass Alvin Chea relishes the chance to emulate the deep, resonant bass of Jimmy Jones on “Farther Along” and he does a fine job of it.  The group gets altogether churchy, tambourine and all, on “Glorious Day,” the latter recorded by the Harmonizing Four as “Lived He Loved Me.” 

Most intriguing is the group’s arrangement of Randall Thompson’s thrilling “Alleluia,” which is evocative of their work for the award-winning Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration (1992).  Makes me wonder how they would sound doing Gabriel Faure’s “Cantique de Jean Racine.”  

On “You’re Gonna Need Him,” Take 6 assumes the vocal visage of the always controlled but ever exuberant Dixie Hummingbirds.  While they maintain the integrity of the originals on One, the unique Take 6 sound is ever present.  It’s a clever and fascinating album and I hope they do another like it.

Picks: “Farther Along,” “Glorious Day.”