In this time of lockdowns, vax mandates, face coverings, inflation and whatever you want to add, nothing is needed more than a reason for hope, and Take 6 helped the packed house at The Smothers Theatre refocus on what is truly important in life, here, in future time and to eternity
The team of Claude McKnight/ten, Mark Kibble/ten, Joel Kibble/ten, Dave Thomas/ten, Alvin Chea/b and Khristian Dently/bar brought joy to the world by reminding the audience of good times of the distant and near past and hope of the future by mixing songs from various generations.
At this stage in their career, like the best of bands like Count Basie or Duke Ellington, Take 6 has its own distinctive sound and style, so when they take pieces like The Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life” , Eric Clapton’s “Change The World”, Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” or the movie piece “Windmills Of Your Mind” they are able to puree them into a mix of rich velvety harmonies and exciting solos, turning each pop piece into a street corner symphony.
Coming from a church background, there was plenty of solo singing that comes right from the pulpit, with the leads weaving in and out, or up and down like Whack a Mole like on the hip and upbeat “Back In Love” as the team creates its own rhythm section that sounds like something out of an 80s boom box on “I Got Life/Spread” or “Roof Garden”. The band showed their bop chops with a Soul Trained version of “Just In Time” that sounded like it was arranged by Nathan Detroit.
But the real treat this evening was to hear songs of Christmas delivered by gents who really believe the message. Thus a medley of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas/Carol of the Bells” was a choral delight filled with awe and wonder, while humor was thrown in with a Cab Calloway-inspired “Dance of the Sugarplums” which made Tchaikovsky swing in his grave. A two bass vocal jai alai volley created a hoot of “Grinch” while a mix of nostalgia and salute to today’s military was produced on “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”.
Life here in troubled times was put in perspective as each singer took turns to salute the King of Kings on “Fly Away”, putting “spiritual” back in spirituals. As CS Lewis once said, “anything not focused on eternally is eternally obsolete”. On this Advent evening, Take 6 took us to Bethlehem and beyond.
Upcoming shows at Pepperdine’s Lisa Smith Wengler Center For The Arts includes The Four Freshmen 01/23, The Queen’s Cartoonists 01/28, Stacey Kent 03/09 and Bessie, Billie and Nina/03/24, and Roger McGuinn 04/25