Todd Williamson/Invision for AEG/AP file
Take 6 performs at the fifth annual Holiday Tree Lighting at L.A. Live and opening of LA Kings Holiday Ice on Nov. 28, 2012, in Los Angeles. The group is set to perform next Thursday in the ICCU Arena at the University of Idaho during the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
Eminent a cappella group Take 6 will perform selections from its 45-year history next week at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz festival.
And the jazz world giants might share something new as well.
The group has a coming release, “Rhapsody,” due out in the next year or so, and the Moscow audience might get a sneak peek, Take 6 co-founder Claude McKnight said in a recent phone interview.
“We may do a song or two from that unreleased album at the jazz festival,” McKnight said.
A play on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” it’s “pretty much a straight-ahead jazz album,” McKnight said, noting it follows a series of recordings that were more a blend of different sounds.
McKnight, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble, Dave Thomas, Alvin Chea and Khristian Dentley comprise the Alabama-based ensemble that headlines next Thursday’s concert.
Take 6 covers all the bases, musically, McKnight said — gospel, jazz, R&B “and everything in between.”
“Everything is centered around harmony,” he said.
The 10-time Grammy Award winners are on the road about a third of the year, bringing their decades of experience to stages all over the world, every appearance distinct from the next.
“How we’re feeling is what’s going to happen in the performance,” McKnight said. “We feed off the audience. We feed off each other. We try to make it a transcendent experience every time.”
Take 6 won its first Grammy back in 1988, for best soul gospel performance by a duo or group, and has been turning out hits ever since. Staying together for decades, through inevitable highs and lows, isn’t easy for any group, McKnight said, but it comes down to respect.
“That’s the bedrock, and everything else will be shifting sands on top of that,” he said. “We love each other. We’ve been together more than half our lives.”
The artists Take 6 collaborated with over the years include some of the biggest names in music: Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Dr. Dre, Whitney Houston, Kenny Rogers.
“It’s a pretty diverse list of people,” McKnight said.
On that list is English singer-songwriter Jacob Collier, 30, an industry phenom and now seven-time Grammy winner, who came up listening to Take 6 as a teenager recording YouTube videos in his bedroom. Collier, McKnight said, “might be one of the most talented human beings on the planet.”
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Also performing next Thursday is New York City-based jazz flutist Jamie Baum, along with UI and Moscow-based talent with the UI Chamber Jazz Choir, UI Jazz Band I, Palouse Jazz Project and Hamp’s Jazz Ambassadors.
Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.
Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival concert schedule
All concerts are at 7 p.m. on the University of Idaho campus in Moscow.
Performances this year start and end a day earlier than usual, to allow for the Easter holiday.
Tuesday
Administration Auditorium, 851 Campus Drive
Hamp’s Gala: The traditional evening kick-off concert featuring Lionel Hampton School of Music student ensembles is free to attend, but tickets are required.
Wednesday
ICCU Arena, 900 Stadium Drive
World Music Celebration
- Christine Jensen, saxophonist
- Arun Ramamurthy, violinist
- UI Jazz Band I, Vern Sielert, director
- UI Jazz Choir I, Dan Bukvich, director
- World Beat Ensemble, Navin Chettri, director
Next Thursday
Aria Isadora
South Indian violinist Arun Ramamurthy will perform during Wednesday’s World Music Celebration.
ICCU Arena
- Take 6, a cappella group
- Jamie Baum, flutist
- UI Chamber Jazz Choir, Dan Bukvich, director
- UI Jazz Band I, Vern Sielert, director
- Palouse Jazz Project
- Hamp’s Jazz Ambassadors
Friday, April 18
ICCU Arena
- Jeff Hamilton Trio
- Lionel Hampton Big Band featuring Jason Marsalis
- Hamp’s Jazz Ambassadors
Tickets: $50-$70 (student discount available) at uitickets.com, at the Bruce Pitman Center during festival week or at the ICCU arena starting one hour before concert time. More information is available by calling (208) 885-4636.
