Page 9 of 14

2000

Ninth album Live is released by Reprise.

In November, Mark informs us that they're already working on a new album, to be produced by Marcus Miller. Release date for the moment unknown.

Cedric is collaborating on an educational series about music, “Music To My Ears".

Produced by Nashville Public Television and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Music to My Ears is a resource for music teachers at the middle and high school level (grades 6-12). The series, comprising of four 30-min. episodes, has several goals. The most important is to encourage the viewer to become an active listener who employs careful observation and critical thinking in the art of listening.
Secondary goals include 1) helping audiences make connections between concepts in music and other art forms, such as the visual or performing arts; 2) exposing students to a variety of musical styles and genres; and 3) introducing viewers to musical structure and terminology.
The series is hosted by Dr. Cedric Dent of Take 6. Dent holds a Ph.D. in music and is active as a composer and educator as well as performer. The other members of Take 6 join Dent to provide vocal demonstrations of the ideas being presented in each show. Other featured groups include the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Fairfield Four, the Beegie Adair Trio, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra Trio. Each program explores a musical idea through performances, conversations, and demonstrations. Other art forms are used to create analogies for the musical concepts.

Bron: https://www.ait.net/catalog/index.php?cPath=1_439

See https://www.ait.net/products/clips/music_taking_turns_clip.mp4 for a video sample of episode “Taking Turns".

Performances
Collaborations

Performances

01-17-00 Ann Arbor, MI (Hill Auditorium, Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

04-14-00 New Haven, CT (Pattel Chapel)

04-18-00 Nashville, TN (Ryman Auditorium, Gospel Music Association Week)

04-20-00 Huntsville, AL (Von Braun Center)

04-25-00 until 04-29 New York, NY (Blue Note New York, 9pm and 11:30pm)
Photos: https://www.take6.net/BNNY2000.htm

04-30-00 New York, NY (Blue Note New York, 11:30pm)

06-17-00 Bowie, MD (Prince Georges Stadium)

06-18-00 Indianapolis, IN (Indy Jazz Festival)

06-24-00 New Haven, CT (International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven Green))

07-14-00 until 07-15 Canary Islands (Festival)

07-18-00 Dell Hala, Sweden (Festival)

07-21-00 until 07-22 Pori, Finland (Pori Jazz Festival)

08-06-00 Trenton, MI (Jazz On The River)

08-12-00 Riverside, CA (Life Church, Riverside Convention Center)

08-13-00 Louisville, KY (St. Stephen Jubilee Festival)

08-27-00 Boston, MA (City Hall Plaza)

09-02-00 Redondo Beach, CA (Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center)

09-05-00 Toronto, Canada (Roy Thomson Hall)

09-09-00 Redondo Beach, CA (Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center)

09-18-00 until 09-23 Las Vegas, NV (Blue Note club, Aladdin Hotel)

10-07-00 Merrillville, IN (Star Plaza Theatre)

10-22-00 Universal City, CA (Universal Ampitheater)
Power of Praise Gospel Celebration, with other artists.

11-05-00 Jacksonville, FL (Billy Graham Crusade at Alltel Stadium)

11-13-00 until 11-18 Osaka, Japan (Blue Note)

11-20-00 until 11-25 Tokyo, Japan (Blue Note)

11-28-00 Hamamatsu, Japan (Hamamatsu Hall)

11-29-00 until 12-05 Fukuoka, Japan (Blue Note)

12-16-00 (TV) Holiday at Pops 2000 (A&E Network)
Recorded at the Symphony Hall in Boston: The Boston Pops Orchestra (conductor Keith Lockhart), the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and guests Martina McBride, Take 6 and Jimmy Tingle.
They sing ‘Let It Snow', ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' and with Martina ‘I'll Be Home For Christmas'.

2001

Joey takes his first singing lessons with Kim Wood Sandesky (from Nashville, Tennessee). “Learning how to do those exercises helped to open up my range and helped to get a better quality."

DVD-audio “Take 6" is released in April. It contains the first album, added with two songs: ‘I L-O-V-E U' (1990) and ‘So Cool' (1996).
In August 2000, Jack Nicely (of 16th Avenue Sound and Seventeen Grand Studios) receives the commission to create a surround sound mix (5.1) of Take 6's debut album. He writes about this on https://jakeniceley.com/mix.august.00.html:

The first Take 6 CD was originally cut on a 3324 by engineer Don Cobb. Not surprisingly, remixing for 5.1 gave Niceley the opportunity to create an interesting dimensional image of the six singers spread around the soundfield. But again, he cautions, “you still have to create a coherent acoustic space, and in the case of a record that a lot of people know and love, you have to be faithful to the original mix to a large degree or it won't sound right to people. You have to be respectful; you can't just have everything all over the place."

That doesn't mean there was no room for creativity, however. “There's a song on there called ‘I L-O-V-E You' that was 48 tracks," he says. “It had multiple voices, plus they used their voices to sound like instruments. They had two passes for each singer-the first was for the primary vocal, and on the second pass they would double the part but also they might change the part very slightly here and there.
In the 5.1 mix, I separated those two parts and flipped the doubled part to the opposite speaker, so if someone was predominantly in the left front, then their double would be in the right rear. Then I also used a lot of very tight stereo delays and some longer delays to create even more space. Everything was tempo-mapped and there's a lot of panning going on in the Take 6 stuff, particularly when they're imitating instruments. I have that flying all over the place.
‘I L-O-V-E You' is like a roller-coaster ride. At the end of that you're exhausted," he laughs. “But that track was more the exception; the rest is more straightforward, though hopefully still fun to listen to."

After “9-11" Stevie Wonder calls Mark on September 18, to ask the group to join in on “Amerca: A Tribute To Heroes" which is about to be LIVE broadcasted coming September 21. They agree and rehearse the next day with Stevie in Los Angeles the song ‘Love's In Need Of Love'.

This year, documentary Waikiki – In the Wake of Dreams of Edgy Lee is released. Take 6 collaborates on this by singing the song ‘Waikiki' a cappella.
(Note, this version can NOT be found on the album accompanying the movie ‘Paniolo o Hawaii', which is compiled by Jim Ed Norman of Warner Bros.! The album is called “Na Mele O Paniolo (Hawaiian Cowboy Songs)" by the way.)

Performances
Collaborations

Performances

02-02-01 Irvine, CA (Barclay Theatre, UC Irvine)

02-21-01 Los Angeles, CA (Staples Center, 43rd Grammy Awards)
They sing with Nnenna Freelon ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right'; the first time they're singing with a woman. Claude: “We've done very few fully-arranged a cappella songs with women." “During the telecast, I don't know if you could see this at home or not, but as we were singing, you could see people thinking “Okay, what's goin' on here?" There was a full standing ovation afterwards; it was incredible!"

02-03-01 New York, NY (Apollo Theatre - Black History Month Benefit Concert)

03-17-01 Auburn, WA (Green River Community College)

05-05-01 New York, NY (Blue Note)
Photos: https://www.take6.net/photos20010505BNNY.htm

05-20-01 Singapore
Photos: https://www.take6.net/photosinSingapore.htm

06-24-01 St. Kitts, West Indies (St. Kitts Music Festival)

06-30-01 The White House, East Room!
Website https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Take_6_performs_at_the_White_House.jpg reports:
“Take 6 performs for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush during a Black Music Month celebration in the East Room of the White House."
In March 2009 Claude tells about this:
“We've performed at the White House during 3 Presidencies, and were never put on song “restrictions!". You get invited for specific functions and reasons, but, they invite you for who you are, and what you're known for musically." Fortunately...

07-21-01 Detroit, MI (Chene Park Amphitheater)
Celebrity Homecoming Concert, to celebrate Detroit's 300th birthday. With Stevie Wonder among others.

08-28-01 until 08-29 Eilat, Israel (Red Sea Jazz Festival)

09-02-01 Miami, FL (Miami Music Fest)

09-23-01 Cleveland, FL (Severance Hall)

10-04-01 until 10-07 Pittsburgh, PA (Manchester Craftsmen Guild)

10-26-01 until 10-27 Honolulu, Hawaii (Blaisdell Concert Hall)
Their first visit to Hawaii. They perform some songs with the Honolulu Symphony.
Photos: https://www.take6.net/photosinhawaii10272001.htm

11-16-01 Washington DC (Kennedy Center)

11-20-01 (TV) 4th Annual Soul Train Christmas Starfest
Guest stars are (a.o.) Mary Mary, James Ingram, Rev. Jesse Jackson.

11-21-01 (TV) America: A Tribute to Heroes
Video: Love's In Need Of Love Today (with Stevie Wonder)

11-25-01 until 12-16 Japan Tour
Photos: https://www.take6.net/photos2001injapan.htm

11-30-01 (TV, Japan) Takeshi's Anyone could be Picasso
Takeshi Kitano is known as movie director. Some clips:
Video: Biggest Part Of Me
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-dX_187798 (Marc says here in Japanese: “You didn't think I could speak Japanese now did you?")
Video: Beautiful World

2002

In June, album Beautiful World (Warner Bros.) is released, the 11th one (if you count the DVD-A). Off the album, single ‘Takin' It to The Streets' is released.
With this record, the contract with Warner Brothers comes to a close. Mark says (only in a 2006 interview):

“We've been with Warner Brothers our entire career, and toward the latter three quarters of that time, we experienced such a lack of interest. They would allow us to do CDs, but just kind of drop 'em after we did 'em.
We also realized that record companies may put up a lot of money to produce the CDs, but they also get all the returns. So, it made sense for us to use our finances and our abilities to just do it! And to let God bless it and bless us in the meantime! (laughs hard)"

So it has become Take 6 Records. That means they will have to invest in their products themselves... Mark: “We've struggled over the last 10 years financially. It's been difficult for us to hang together and do things, but God has maintained us. None of us is starving or hurting deeply financially. We're OK."

From an interview between David and Ken Gibbs (editor at Africana.com):

[David]: “It was sort of a journey where we started out with a concept and the concept grew changed and took on a life of its own. We started basically trying to go for jazz standards that had a spiritual base and over time that grew into, “let's not just limit ourselves to one genre of music, let's open it up to good songs with a spiritual base," and then we just started listening to the material. After going through hundreds of songs, the ones that had four stars by them meant that at least four members of the group were feeling it. They lived, and then we took it further from there, put it through the record company and our producer Marcus Miller, and we kind of created the package that you have now."

About their record company:
[Ken]: “I've been looking for information on your new album and I can't find too much on it. Do you all get significant promotion from your label?"
[Dave] “Well, it comes and goes in ways — the reason I say that is because for the past few albums that we released, at the moment that our album was going to come out we had no record company, which meant they were changing administrations. It's always a weird situation when that happens, but thing that we learn as human beings and as adults is that, in general, in today's society you have to take the bull by the horns and with the help of the lord steer your own destiny."

In 2002, Michiko visits their Vertical Sound Studio. This studio has been built by Mark: he's got skills and has always worked in electrical engineering and construction. Together with Joey he runs the studio now.

Performances
Collaborations

Performances

03-23-02 Tampa, FL (Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Art & Spirituality Festival)

04-18-02 Burghausen, Germany (33. Internationale Jazzwoche)
Video: Takin' It To The Streets
Video: If We Ever + I've Got Life / Spread Love
Video: I've Got Life / Spread Love
Video: Wade In The Water
Video: People Get Ready
Video: Badiyah
Video: Take 6 Medley
Video: Somethin' Within Me
Video: Fly Away
Video: A Few More Miles
Video: Don't Give Up
Video: Grandma's Hands
(So Much 2 Say, Beautiful World, Mary)

05-20-02 until 05-22 Fukuoka, Japan (Blue Note)
Concert “Super A-Cappela", 7:00 & 9:30 PM.

07-12-02 The Hague, Holland (North Sea Jazz Festival)
Paul Acket Pavillion, 6-7:15 PM. Musicians: Alvin Chea, Cedric Dent, Claude V. McKnight III, David Thomas, Joey Kibble, Mark Kibble; Darrel Tibbs, Jet Penix.
Set list: I've Got Life - Wade In The Water - People Get Ready - Brazilian Rhyme - Few More Miles - Don't Give Up - Say Yeah - Grandmas Hands - So Much 2 Say - Beautiful world
Video: People Get Ready
Video: Brazilian Rhyme
Video: introduction of members

11-16-02 Huntsville, AL (Oakwood College)

12-08-02 (TV) A Motown Christmas
In this Special, Take 6 sings ‘Joy To The World' (with Stevie Wonder) and ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', and ‘This Christmas' with Stevie, Brian McKnight, The Temptations and Thelma Houston.
At the same time a DVD is released with the same name, containing more songs than could be heard in the TV show.

Take 6: biography

Article Index

2000

Performances

Collaborations

2001

Performances

Collaborations

2002

Performances

Collaborations