1980

The story of Take 6 starts at Oakwood College in Huntsville (in the north of Alabama).
Oakwood, an at that time small Seventh-day Adventist college, is renowned for their quartets.

From the moment on 17 year old Claude McKnight sets foot on Oakwood, he tries to form a quartet to sing in after classes. He finds three fellow freshmen (his roommate Willie Armstrong, Wyatt Phillips, and Darryl Glenn Hunter) and comes up with a name: the Gentlemen's Estate Club, named after their freshmen dormitory Gentlemen's Estate (also known as G.E.).
Actually, G.E. was no more than a trailer park.

Composition of this group:

• tenor 1: Wyatt Phillips
• tenor 2: Darryl Glenn Hunter
• baritone: Claude McKnight
• bass: Willie Armstrong

The group is inspired by the quartet that originated from this school: the Breath of Life Quartet.
The sole public performance of the Gentlemen's Estate Club quartet is on a friday night at the J.L. Moran Hall . They sing, among others, ‘No More Sorrow' of the Breath of Life Quartet.

After a while, they realize that no one except Claude can reach all of the high notes, so they decide to shuffle the parts around:

• tenor 1: Claude McKnight
• tenor 2: Wyatt Phillips
• baritone: Darryl Glenn Hunter
• bass: Willie Armstrong

Several months after the quartet's instigation, in autumn of 1980, they are warming up for a performance in one of Oakwood's auditoriums where student performances happened all the time. This warm up takes place in the bathroom beneath the auditorium (because of the voice-friendly acoustics). Several groups are to perform that evening.
But as it happens, the moment the Gentlemen's Estate Club quartet is warming up with ‘If We Ever', one Mark Kibble walks by and recognizes Claude's voice. Mark, who is 16 and attending a high school near Oakwood College, knows Claude from the church at Buffalo (New York) when they were little.
He enters the bathroom and improvises a fifth part to what they are doing... and they gladly except his contribution: they perform with five that night! Naturally they have to come up with a new name: Sounds of Distinction.

Line up of this new group could have been:

• tenor 1: Claude McKnight
• tenor 2: Mark Kibble
• tenor 3: Wyatt Phillips
• baritone: Darryl Glenn Hunter
• bass: Willie Armstrong

Mark's fifth voice is most welcome, because they are now able to produce more jazzy sounds. Mark starts arranging for the group (i.e. the song Bless This House).

Though fellow students are very enthousiastic about this new group, the faculty members are not really. One internet source says: “They mainly sang for AYS (weekly friday night vespers), and were not allowed to sing in the Oakwood College sanctuary because their music was sprinkled too much with “worldy" influence, but they definitely sang for AYS in the gym during Alumni weekend."
Mark Kibble said in an interview one time that the school made a new regulation:
“If you sang in a college-sponsored group or choir, you couldn't be in any other groups of more than four people. Of course, we were more than four. But that didn't even matter to me. It mattered more that I stick to this particular thing that we had, because it was so good.
I think part of the reason was that if you were in another group, you might run into scheduling conflicts when it came to rehearsals or performances with college-sponsored groups.
But, yes, I think it really was about the style. Oakwood is a Christian school, and historically, there's always been a resistance toward anything jazzy. We were very jazzy. And even though we were not using jazz instruments, we sounded like we were. That was enough. Change is always hard, especially in environments like that. And they just didn't know what to make of us. So, they tried to keep the reins tight."

Mark introduces this year (still 1980) Mervyn Warren as an extra member. Mervyn too is still attending high school. Mervyn and Mark used to do several musical projects together (i.e. the group A Special Blend!). Mervyn is accepted – and now we have a sextet!

Members:

• 1st tenor: Claude McKnight
• 1st tenor: Mark Kibble
• 2nd tenor: Mervyn Warren
• 2nd tenor: Wyatt Phillips
• baritone: Darryl Glenn Hunter
• bass: Willie Armstrong

Mark en Mervyn arrange ‘Bless This House' again to make it 6-part.

1981

Wyatt leaves in the beginning of 1981 for Keene, Texas (the Southwestern Adventist College) and Darryl leaves Oakwood too (and therefore the group too). New Tenor is Hallerin Hilton Hill and new Baritone Jerry Hutchinson. The group takes on a new name: Alliance.

Line up:

• 1st tenor: Claude McKnight
• 1st tenor: Mark Kibble
• 2nd tenor: Mervyn Warren
• 2nd tenor: Hallerin Hilton Hill (perhaps)
• baritone: Jerry Hutchinson
• bass: Willie Armstrong

At the beginning of the new semester (fall 1981) Willie is no longer at Oakwood. Eric Greene (a former room mate of Claude) replaces him. Claude himself is away too. Wyatt has returned however and Mark asks him to fill in for Claude (for just one live concert); in this line up they perform ‘Mary' at Moran Hall.

Line up of Alliance:

• 1st tenor: Wyatt Phillips
• 1st tenor: Mark Kibble
• 2nd tenor: Mervyn Warren
• 2nd tenor: Hallerin Hilton Hill (perhaps)
• baritone: Jerry Hutchinson
• bass: Eric Greene

Mervyn decides this year to follow courses at Oakwood. With Alma Blackmon, he studies music theory, piano and techniques of choral conducting. He sings, like Mark and Eric, with the Aeolians. The conductor of The Aeolians, Ms Alma Blackmon, doesn’t like the fact of choir members singing in other groups (because the choir members should be available for all rehearsals and concerts), so (for a short period?) Alliance is disbanded.

Mervyn continues during his tenure (4 years) to sing in The Aeolians, later on becoming their stage director, assistant conductor, and alternate accompanist. He will travel a lot with the choir through the US, Bermuda, the Bahamas, England, Scotland and Wales.

1983

Alliance records their first album at the Sound Cell Studios: Something Within at the Legacy Records label. This small label is founded by Henry Mosley, professor at Oakwood at that time. Mosley serves as manager of the group too.
The first song Doug Jansen Smith (from Sound Cell) is recording with the group (on a Sunday morning) is ‘Come Unto Me'.
The group uses their song ‘6 to 1' (Walk On The Wild Side) to appear on stage one by one. (Oakwoodites remember that they were dressed completely in white.)

Note: according to a Youtube comment at the first song of this album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLkgEE-tZh8) Keith Pascal is singing lead, so the line up of the group has changed here already. “That's Keith Pascal singing lead. He used to be my youth pastor. I remember them singing this at my church way back when they were still Alliance."