Evangelism And All That Jazz

By Richard N. Ostling

In accord with their rigorous faith, the clean-cut singers perform no non- Christian material onstage and book no secular dates after sundown each Friday because of their church's Jewish-style Sabbath observance. They shun alcohol and tobacco and try to maintain daily devotionals and to give one- tenth of their income to the church.

Meet Take 6, the hot new gospel group whose performers, all devout Seventh- day Adventists, are as much in the business of preaching as entertaining. The six men, who perform with no instruments except their heaven-sent voices, count themselves among the world's more unusual evangelists. "Our mission," says bass Alvin Chea, "is to take the word of Christ into places it doesn't ordinarily go." Founder Claude McKnight III says of the group's Christian message, "It's not a gimmick for us. It is our lives."

At last month's Grammy Awards, that was more than enough to earn them an odd coupling of both jazz and gospel prizes. They are also up for six Gospel Music Association awards next month. The sextet appeared out of nowhere in 1988 with an impeccable debut album (titled Take 6) that inspired hallelujahs from the likes of jazzman Quincy Jones. Coming up in 1989: a second album, a video with Stevie Wonder, a 36-date tour with Al Jarreau, album backup for Johnny Mathis and a sound-track tune for filmmaker Spike Lee.

This is not the hog-stomping, Bible-thumping, camp-meeting music that used to rattle the tent poles along the revival circuit. Consider these elliptical lyrics about being born again: "I never thought I would ever/ Spot a ray of hope in the residue . . . But this time I found a Gold Mine in You" (God, not a girlfriend). Even the sextet's gospel oldies are revamped with vocal pyrotechnics, improbable harmonies and sly humor. As it injects religion into the freewheeling jazz-soul world, Take 6 is loosening up staid Adventism. Just before the Grammys the group gave its first performance at Sligo Church in Takoma Park, Md., where members include many officials of the denomination's nearby world headquarters. McKnight shouted to the roaring throng, "We believe there should be no happier people on the face of the earth than those who serve a risen Saviour."

The singers' soul-saving urgency flows from the Adventist teaching that the Second Coming could occur virtually any day now. Tenor Mark Kibble, who devised the distinct six-part sound, scans the drug scene and other manifest modern evils and concludes, "We are truly living in the last days before Christ comes. Because of that, we are more intense in showing people they need not be subject to this world."

Black Adventist congregations headed by graduates of Alabama's superstrict church-run Oakwood College, where Take 6 began in 1980, provided the young men with most of their performing dates as they struggled to survive during the early years. Their fortunes changed when a representative of Reprise records turned up at an audition in 1987. The group had hoped to sign with a religious-record company, but its members now realize that this would have greatly limited the evangelistic opportunities. Asks singer-arranger Mervyn Warren: "How many non-Christians go into a Christian bookstore?" When asked how long the act will stick together, group member Cedric Dent sees just two possibilities. "Either our commitment to the Lord will wander, and he will see fit to break us up," Dent says, "or he will come."