Apr 15, 2025 11:44 AM
Blindfold Test: Ethan Iverson
Between last Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in…
The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 will hit the road together for a U.S. tour that begins Oct. 1 in Bangor, Maine.
(Photo: Courtesy of the artists)Vocal-jazz dynasties The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 will join forces this October for “The Summit,” a collaborative national tour during which the two groups will perform nearly 50 shows across the United States.
Between them, The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 boast a remarkable 20 Grammy Awards, and cover a range of popular styles from bebop to r&b, gospel to swing. This tour marks their first collaboration.
“It’s basically putting together these two groups that have listened to and been fans of each other for many years,” says Claude V. McKnight III, first tenor and founder of Take 6. “We’ll be doing some songs together, stripping some songs down, and doing different kinds of pairings, and just having a really good time onstage. This is something you can only do live.”
Since its inception in the early ’70s, The Manhattan Transfer, a vocal quartet, has released nearly 30 albums, and has been nominated for 20 Grammy awards, winning 10. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.
Take 6, an a cappella group, released its most recent album, Believe, in March 2016. The group has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Justin Timberlake.
The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 kick off their tour Oct. 1 in Bangor, Maine, with subsequent stops in New England and across the country through March 2017.
On Jan. 21 the groups will headline the Charleston Jazz Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, where each group will perform a set individually before coming together for a combined finale.
For more information, visit manhattantransfer.net or take6.com.
“I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.
Apr 15, 2025 11:44 AM
Between last Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Ethan Iverson performed as part of the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival in…
“At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”
Apr 15, 2025 11:55 AM
DownBeat has a long association with the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the premiere…
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
Davis was a two-time Grammy winner for liner notes.
Apr 22, 2025 11:50 AM
Francis Davis, an august jazz and cultural critic who won both awards and esteem in print, film and radio, died April…
