By Brittany Ward
Jan. 23, 2018
Lincoln will welcome two of the most acclaimed, award-winning vocal groups in pop music to the Lied Center of Performing Arts when The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 combine forces Jan. 27, to form The Summit.
The performance on Saturday begins at 7:30 pm. Limited tickets are available at the Lied Ticket Office at 301 N 12th St., by phone at (402)472-4747 or online at LiedCenter.org. Tickets start at $44 and are half off for students with a valid NCard.
The Manhattan Transfer has defied categorization by incorporating pop, jazz, R&B and much more into its performances. Since the group’s founding in 1969, it has won multiple pop and jazz Grammy Awards and its 1985 album, Vocalese, earned 12 Grammy nominations. So far, The Manhattan Transfer has released 24 albums, 36 singles and produced one top-ten hit. The quartet were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998 and sold millions of records worldwide. They have performed with other vocal legends including Tony Bennett, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King and more.
Take 6 (Claude McKnight, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble, Dave Thomas, Alvin Chea and Khristian Dentley) is the archetypal gospel a capella group with 10 Grammy and many more awards under its belt. Since 1980 the group has released 14 albums and 3 singles that showcase the evolution and addition of contemporary R&B and jazz to the original gospel sound.
Having worked and/or performed with iconic musical names such as Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and more, it comes as no surprise that Quincy Jones dubbed Take 6 as the “baddest vocal cats on the planet.”
The show will not be the traditional double-bill performance but a combination of separate and joint performances as The Summit. Well-known classics from each group are rearranged to accent each group’s specialty. Integrating The Manhattan Transfer’s smooth doo-wop style and Take 6’s soulful R&B sound creates unexpected twists and turns for an unforgettable experience that does not come along every day.
In press for the shows, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has said that “Take 6 and Manhattan Transfer have combined their talents to create an evening of incredible joy and they do it without forgetting to swing.”
Each group shows no signs of slowing down and are taking on new projects while touring the country. Take 6 was featured on the recently released Boyz II Men album, Under the Streetlight and The Manhattan Transfer was featured on Pentatonix’s 2017 Christmas album, A Pentatonix Christmas Deluxe. Both groups maintain separate touring schedules and will be performing as The Summit in Lake Jackson, Texas, on Feb. 2, and in Minneapolis on Feb. 15.
Brittany Ward is an editorial intern with KZUM.
