Tonight: Live
Take 6
Six songs on Tonight: Live are previously released by Take 6. Fans who were disappointed by the Join The Band/Brothers period will be happy to hear that these six repeaters are drawn from the debut doo-be-doo-wop-bop! and the follow-up So Much 2 Say. The remaining five tunes include four covers and a brand new one.
The crowd is fired up from the outset as Take 6 kicks into "If We Ever Needed the Lord Before" with a new "Do we need Him?/ Right now?/ Yeah!" introduction. However, the club really comes to life when they recognize the familiar strains of "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You," a lyric that’s been "Christian-ized" with lines like "I just have to stop/ And thank my Jesus" and improvised with phrases like "So sweeter than Cocoa Puffs/ In the morning time."
Midway thru the recording, Cedric Dent moves to the piano to accompany an "instrumental" tribute to jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis. Titled "All Blues," Joey Kibble’s vocal version of Davis’ Harmon mute sounds remarkably like the original. Dent remains at the piano as his fellow group members present Charles Chaplin’s "Smile" and their new tune "Over the Hill Is Home."
As you’d expect from any respectable jazz group, Take 6's live performances differ markedly from the studio releases. "So Much 2 Say" is even faster than the original, if that’s possible. Also, there’s an extended improv section that includes some pretty interesting vocal percussion sounds. Always stretching, they walk "Mary" thru several key changes, then extend the ending into a soul-stirring coda that tops seven minutes. The last track combines "I’ve Got Life" and "Spread Love" for a 12-minute finale that shifts in and out of a hip-hop remix mode involving the crowd.
After the lackluster reviews of their Boys II Men-mimicking Brothers project, Claude V. McKnight III (brother to Brian McKnight) promised that Take 6 would stick closer to the a cappella roots that endeared them to their fans. Tonight: Live indicates this promise is being taken seriously since it resurrects some of the songs that initially established the group. This recording also provides Take 6 their first opportunity to really showcase their improvisations--which may repel some cookie-cutter fans, but attract true connoisseurs of vocal and jazz music.
by David Bruce Murray
From their beginnings as a college vocal ensemble in the early ’80s, Take 6 deservedly earned high acclaim for their debut in 1988. They have since been considered the standard by which a cappella jazz is measured. Embraced in both Christian and mainstream jazz markets, they are like Bobby McFerrin multiplied. Tonight: Live, their first-ever in-concert recording (recorded October, 1999), showcases their vocal acrobatics accompanied by the reactions of the crowd at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Japan.