SPRINGFIELD — Take 6 today is considered the gold standard for vocal jazz. The a cappella group has earned 10 Grammy Awards and 10 Dove Awards to date, as well as praises from the likes of Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder.

But in 1980, when Claude McKnight formed the group — then called The Gentleman’s Estates Quartet — at Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood College, it was just a group of friends who were looking for something fun to do together.

“At the very beginning, it was just a hobby, something to do while we were in school, and we loved to do it,” McKnight said in an interview with The Republican. A few years after their founding, in 1987, the group went on to do a showcase in Nashville, Tennessee, and landed their first recording contract soon after.

Their self-titled debut album, 19

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