The most memorable award for Claude McKnight and his fellow members of Take 6 is the one they did not win in 1989.
“It was our favorite nomination — Best New Artist — for the Grammy Awards,” says McKnight. “We were the first gospel artist nominated for that award.”
The group was one of only five nominees that included singer Tracy Chapman, who went on to win. “It was a special nomination,” McKnight says. “Up to that point, not a lot of people in mainstream music had heard of us. To get that recognition from our peers was amazing.”
Since then, the six-person Nashville-based group, which will take the stage at Tin Pan on August 31, has received numerous awards, including 10 Grammys, 10 Dove Awards, two NAACP Image Awards and a Soul Train Award.
McKnight started the a cappella group, The Gentleman’s Estates Quartet, in 1980 as a freshman at Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville, Alabama with three other freshmen. “It was a hobby at that point,” he says.
The group scored its first contract in 1987 after doing a music showcase in Nashville. “We got a contract the next day,” McKnight says, noting that since then, they have made more than a dozen recordings and are working on their next album “Rhapsody” now. “We hope it will be out the first of next year.”
McKnight’s musical talents are innate. Everyone on his mother’s side of the family was musically inclined. His grandfather headed a gospel choir in Buffalo, N.Y.
He and his three younger brothers — Fred, Michael and Brian — had their own quartet. “We sang in church and anywhere mom wanted us to sing,” he says.
So, it wasn’t a stretch for McKnight to start his own a cappella group when he got into college.
He describes the group’s music as positive and inspirational gospel with jazz undertones, but it has crossed most musical genres.
Over the years, Take 6’s has been able to be in charge of their ever-evolving creativity, which they are happy about. “We’ve been blessed in the sense that no one has wanted to change what we do,” McKnight says. “We have been able to do all the things we wanted to do. That is important because when you are creative, you want to do things that speak to you.”
When asked about the popularity of a cappella music, McKnight points to an ongoing fascination with vocals and vocal music. Television shows like The Sing-Off and films like Pitch Perfect along with groups like Pentatonix, which won The Sing-Off, “have brought notoriety to the genre,” he says, adding that his favorite music to listen to is from the Rat Pack era. “I love big band music.”
Over time, Take 6 has recorded with everybody from Stevie Wonder and Jacob Collier to Whitney Houston and Quincy Jones. “We have done a lot of things,” says McKnight. “The things we had recorded with Quincy Jones were awe-inspiring. He was a friend of ours, and it was very cool to have that relationship.”
Working with Jones gave McKnight and the group an “opportunity to see the master at work,” he adds. “He could get things out of you that you didn’t know you had.”
Of course, the group has worked with his brother award-winning R&B singer/songwriter Brian McKnight on both his recordings and theirs.
They have also had the opportunity to sing at The White House several times for different presidents including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
When they come to Richmond, they plan on giving fans what they want to hear. “We are doing a combination of things that span our entire career,” McKnight says.
Take 6 performs at The Tin Pan on Sunday, August 31, from 2:00 PM until 3:30 PM. Tickets are $84.87 and are available on The Tin Pan’s website.
