Alvin Chea – Roger Ryan – Joey Kibble – Mark Kibble – Claude McKnight -David Thomas vocals
The most awarded a capella vocal group in history, Take 6, are celebrating their 25th Anniversary! The multi-platinum recording group, made up of Claude McKnight, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble, Dave Thomas, Alvin Chea and Khristian Dentley, have thus far earned 10 Grammy Awards with 24 nominations, 10 Dove Awards, a Soul Train Award, 2 NAACP Image Awards, and more. They are kicking off their 25thyear of recording and performing, with a long world tour that takes them to Germany, England, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Japan, Australia, Norway, eastern Europe and South America.
With recognition in musical genres from gospel, jazz and R&B to pop, the sextet is recognized as the pre-eminent a capella group in the world, and have earned praise from such luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson, and Quincy Jones, who calls them the “baddest vocal cats on the planet!’.
A group that knows no musical bounds, Take 6 has come a long way from their days at Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood College where McKnight formed the group as The Gentleman’s Estate Quartet in 1980. When they signed their first record deal eight years later, with Reprise Records/Warner Bros., they became Take 6. Their self-titled debut CD won over jazz and pop critics and the public alike, scored two 1988 Grammy Awards, landed in the Top 10 Billboard Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Christian Charts, and they’ve never slowed down. Their 15 subsequent albums received the same warm reception and sales success.
The members of Take 6 are not only men whose tenets include faith, friendship, respect, and love of music, they put their support and energy behind their beliefs. They are advocates for music education, supporting the efforts of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and others on that mission.