February 18 2009
Do you know the music of Take 6?
Many do. Most don't. But for me you may as well ask 'Do you know the music of Bach?' i.e. the highest point of musical creation. Of the things that make me happy I'm alive (in addition to my marriage, playing piano, Charlie Chaplin, and good croissants), Take 6 ranks high on the list.
We should be grateful they exist, and that we exist when they exist.
Just in case (quoting from their Wikipedia entry): Take 6 is an influential American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 at Oakwood College in Alabama. The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs. They've won 10 Grammy awards, and many more prizes. They have collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones and many others.
True. But hardly enough. To call Take 6 a gospel group, is like calling the Batmobile a car. They are a marvel of musicality. They effervesce with ideas. Their invention gushes. No technical challenges exists for their voices. They move the listener. They excite.
They grab your mind's ear, and perfuse the body with the forget-it-all magic of great art.
You don't have to be religious to like Take 6. You don't have to like jazz, gospel, soul, or whatever slot others try to squeeze them into. You only need to love music.
No, wait. You only need to be alive to love Take 6.
I referred to Bach before. That was intended to signal my core belief about Take 6: they are the heirs to the special genius J. S. Bach brought to this earth. Like him, Take 6 is a synthesis of existing musical styles and techniques, not a new phenomenon. Like him, their music is rooted in religion, but is of the world. Like him, the quantity and quality of the musical creativity is beyond imagination.
The Bach-patrol may scoff at me. But I cannot be shaken in my belief: Take 6 are the heirs to Bach in the history of music.
There. I said it. Do me what you will. I cannot be shaken in my belief.
Take 6 has just released its newest recording, Standards. Oddly, it is a collection of standards. Jazz standards and others. As with every other one of Take 6's 14 recordings, there are tracks I love, and tracks I don't.
But I expect my relation with Standards to evolve along the same lines as with every other one. The tracks I love, I will love even more. The ones I don't love will gobsmack me one day, I'll have a d'oh moment, and wonder how I couldn't have loved them before. Then I'll be all over them.
Do you know Take 6? What do you think of their music? Am I wildly off course? I'd love to hear from you. Leave your comments below.
Meanwhile, thank you Take 6. Thank you for your music, and your work over the years. If J. S. Bach were here to see and hear you, he'd be proud.
- Click here for Take 6's website.
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A brilliant adventure. On his latest recording, My Mother's Father's Song, Ron Davis embraces both his family's rich cultural heritage, and boldly re-engages with the jazz standard.
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