Take 6 Brothers CD

BROTHERS won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. "You Don't Have To Be Afraid" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

Take 6 faces the classic problem for an act that crosses genres -- in their case from gospel to R&B -- to retain what makes them so effective in their original field (and keep their original audience) while expanding their scope beyond it. They owed their original impact to the awe they inspired as six a cappella singers, and so revitalized gospel. That was on their first, million-selling album; by their third, they had added instruments and taken a more conventional approach. Here, on their fourth, they fell between chairs, with Brian McKnight's production and musical arrangements making them sound like a more wholesome Boyz II Men while they wrote first-person songs with titles like "You Don't Have to Be Afraid" and "I'll Be There" as if speaking in the name of Christ while sounding suspiciously like a boyfriend. Of course, that's an old gimmick in crossover Christian music, but the old problem is that it never gets sexy enough to be convincing. The difference was marked in a song like "Jesus Makes Me Happy," when the group really laid their cards on the table and sounded more fervent as a result. But there wasn't enough of that on an album that frequently masked the group's real strengths. ~ William Ruhlmann

Additional personnel includes: Brian McKnight (vocals, various instruments); Victor & Cedric Caldwell (various instruments); Paul Jackson, Jr., Sheldon Reynolds (guitar); Cleto Escobedo, Gerald Albright (saxophone); Ray Brown, Oscar Brashear (trumpet, flugelhorn); Reggie Young (trombone); Ann King, Les Pierce (horns); Dee-Dee Holt (drums); Raphael Padilla (percussion).

Producers: Brian McKnight, Les Pierce, Victor & Cedric Caldwell, David Thomas.

Engineers include: Les Pierce, Chris Wood.

Personnel: Take 6 (vocals, background vocals); Claude McKnight, David Thomas, Joey Kibble, Mark Kibble, Brian McKnight (vocals); Paul Jackson , Paul Jackson, Jr. , Sheldon Reynolds (guitar); Cleto Escobedo (saxophone, horns); Gerald Albright (saxophone); Oscar Brashear, Ray Brown (trumpet, flugelhorn); Reggie C. Young (trombone); Les Pierce, Anna King (horns); Dee Dee Holt (drums); Rafael Padilla (percussion).

Audio Mixer: Jon Gass.

Recording information: Aire La Studio; Backroom Recording Studio, Glendale, CA; Father's Image; Tribe Sound.

Photographer: David Roth.

Arrangers: Ced C; Vic C.; Mark Kibble; Take 6; Victor Caldwell; Cedric Caldwell.

Take 6: Alvin Chea, Cedric Dent, Joel Kibble, Mark Kibble, Claude V. McKnight, III, David Thomas (vocals).

JazzTimes (3/97, p.71) - "...a joyful mix of funky (yet happily restrained) soul grooves and misty-eyed spirituality supported by their hallmark overtone-laden walls of vocal harmony..."
Vibe (12/96, p.181) - "...If gospel can be characterized as funky...BROTHERS fits the bill....all that can be said is Amen."