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THE PULSE OF ENTERTAINMENT: Ten-time Grammy Award winning Take 6 releases 'The Standard,' a CD of classic cover songs.
Also: Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen release biography 'Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White'
A Cappella powerhouse Take 6 tour to promote new CD release, ‘The Standard,’ starts in Maryland October 5th
*The 10-time Grammy and Dove Award winners, a cappella sextet Take 6 releases newest CD, ‘The Standard.”
The CD is full of classic cover songs such as “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
The group, co-founded by member Claude McKnight III (brother of R&B legend Brian McKnight), is currently on “The Standard” Tour which comes to Annapolis, Maryland at Ramshead Tavern Sunday, October 5th and ends in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on February 1, 2009.
“The theme of the new CD is to consider the standard Jazz, Gospel, Pop an R&B (songs),” Claude said about the new album from the Heads Up Entertainment record label.
In discussing why they decided to use instrumentals on two of the songs such as, “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Back to You,” an original Claude co-wrote, he said, “(For) each record we do what would be the best thing for the song and sometimes music is best.”
Best does not describe what you will find on “The Standard,” though I think “unbelievable” is more the word I would use to describe it. The harmony, vocal precision and delivery are the reason why Take 6 has become a legendary a cappella group that has earned them more Grammy and Dove Awards than a room full of notable artists have achieved. Take 6 has also garnered a Soul Train Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations.
“When we do a song it is completely put together…blueprinted,” McKnight said about how the harmony, vocal precision and delivery comes together.
“The Standard” has a list of talented artists and musicians featured such as Claude’s brother Brian McKnight on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On;” Aaron Neville on “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans;” George Benson on Nate King Cole’s “Straighten Up and Fly Right;” Al Jarreau on “Seven Steps to Heaven;” Roy Hargrove on trumpet and vocalist Shelea Frazer on George Gershwin and Marilynn Bergman’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and the voice of Ella Fitzgerald on her timeless classic, “A Tisket A Tasket.” Other classics include Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s “Windmills of Your Mind,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” and Quincy Jones’ “Grace.”
Take 6 launched their career by singing traditional Spirituals and Gospel material a cappella. They released their debut album on Warner Brothers’ Reprised label in 1988. Their self-titled debut scored them two Grammy Awards and landed on the top ten on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Gospel Charts. In 1990 they released the sophomore CD, “So Much 2 Say,” which reached number two on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Charts and garnered another Grammy Award as best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. That was followed by five more album releases.
“We did a showcase in Tennessee…we hoped record labels would show up, but only 12 people showed up,” Claude recalls of their first big break into the entertainment business. “But the president of Warner Brothers was there. A songwriter had told him about a group and he thought that group was us…Because he never worked with an a cappella group before he said, ‘do what you do.’”
Take 6 did just that and I guess we can say “the rest was history.”
Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen release biographical book, ‘Tim and Tim: An American Comedy in Black and White’
“When me and Tom began it was the civil rights – anti war era and we thought we could make people feel better with comedy,” comedian/actor/producer/director Tim Reid said about his beginnings in the entertainment business as part of a comedy duo. “We had a certain amount of belief you could change the world. We thought we changed the world… it wasn’t about the money.”
Tim Reid (black) raised as an only child in Norfolk, Virginia and Tom Dreesen (white) one of eight children raised in the south of Chicago met and found common ground, that of making people laugh and feel better about themselves and the world around them. The fact that they were a black and white duo in an era where racism was running rampant was secondary to them in the beginning and then only a signature of their comedy routine in the end.
“Tom was actually the one who pushed it,” Tim said about the University of Chicago book release of their biography. “I fought for a long time. I said I don’t want to look back…it is what it is. But I am glad I did, it was very catholic and I learned a lot about myself.”
The book “Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White” by Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen with Ron Rapoport takes you literally to the beginning of the lives of both. It takes the reader through the not so attractive life and struggles of both. We see the two struggling young men meet and become motivational speakers for their Junior Chamber of Commerce anti-drug campaign and then find themselves as best friends in a comedy act. The reader joins them in the development of their partnership - from what to name themselves to how they should formulate their jokes and routine in an era where talk of race relations was a very touchy subject. But they did it, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by accident.
The biography also takes us through their successes and to their breakup five years later as Tim leaves his first wife and moves to Hollywood to live with his lover, leaving Tom to deal with the breakout alone while developing his own act. The book takes the reader step-by-step through Tom’s struggles as a solo act trying to make a name in the stand-up business, a struggle that had him sleeping in someone’s abandoned car. The reader also experiences, through words, Tom’s making it to live a life of luxury as the opening act of Frank Sinatra for almost 15 years until his retirement.
“I have been blessed,” Tim Reid informed me. “I have been on more TV series than any actor. I remember a man asked for an autograph for his son and said that his father had brought him to me (when he was a boy) for an autograph.”
Tim said what him and Tom accomplished has still not be repeated, “There is still no black and white comedy team.”
After the split the two comedians met again when Tim was starring in the hit CBS TV series “WKRP in Cincinnati” where he played DJ Venus Flytrap, Tom made a featured guest appearance on the show. By then Tom had landed a comedy gig that paid him so much money for a set amount of weeks that he could survive for a year in middle class America, which afforded him to bring his wife and kids to Hollywood.
Tim went on to star in the TV series “Frank’s Place,” earning him an NAACP Image Award, all a result of seeing Tom appear on The Tonight Show and late Night with David Letterman and eventually meeting Sinatra and landing a permanent gig as the opening act of all his concerts.
Tim went on to release a comedy album titled “Breaking Face” and also appeared in “Highlander: The Series” and in Stephen Kings movie, “It.” He had recurring roles in “Simon & Simon,” “Snoops,” “Sister Sister” and “That 70’s Show” television series. Tom Dreesen also released a comedy album title “That White Boy’s Crazy” recorded live in front of an all black audience.
Today Tim manages his film/television studio in Virginia along with his second wife model/actress Daphne Maxwell-Reid (who co-starred with Tim on “Frank’s Place” and “Simon and Simon”) and Tom still makes crowds laugh with his stand up acts for fund raisers and other social events.
“Television has the power to shape opinion,” Tim said about why he built a studio. “I chose to build a studio to do my development thing. I have 40 years (experience in the business). There is a huge talent pool unlike when I was out there…find someone to take the book to film”
To learn more about Tim and Tom visit www.timandtomcomedy.com.
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