Minimal maximalism

This year´s sold-out concert bore little resemblance to the long, cathartic community sweat lodges of past years, but it was an entertaining, highly professional show that snuck in a message or two by purely musical means.

A sophisticated set of big-band arrangements by MSU´s Jazz Orchestra I was the perfect set-up for a juicy salvo of crowd-pleasing gospel/pop/R&B from the Grammy-winning a cappella group Take 6.

The slate wasn´t as lopsided as it looked on paper. The 8 p.m. show demonstrated how 22 musicians can play as one and six vocalists can sound like a 22-piece band. (Both groups joyfully rocked out on Stevie Wonder tunes, to euphoric effect.)

The student big band, directed by Rodney Whitaker, soared and roared when it was called for, but most of the time it played with the focus and fire of Miles Davis´ tight quintet from the 1960s. The band’s intensity reached its zenith when exploring the music of Davis´s pianist, Herbie Hancock.

The usually effusive Whitaker added no comments when he introduced Hancock´s "Riot," written amid the racial tensions of late 60s ("I´d just get mad," he said).

Instead, he let the music — and the title — speak for itself. The band´s tensile sound generated a low hum, a high-voltage cable of tightly wound dissonance and harmony. A series of sizzling solos ended in a saxophone and trumpet confrontation that made the wire whip, fray and nearly snap.

Another Hancock arrangement, "I Have a Dream," set an almost romantic melody, suffused with deep love for King, against a mood of melancholy introspection.

Even after the complexities and colors of Whitaker´s big band, there was no need to reset the ears to appreciate Take 6. With consummate showmanship honed over decades, the old pros conjured up the sound of not one, but about 20 bands of different sizes, using nothing but their lips, lungs, esophagi and larynxes.

The crowd at Fairchild Theater got happier by the minute under the relentless push of Take 6´s polished pistons of positivity. Who needs drums when you have the cavernous chest cavity and percussive facial equipment of bass Alvin Chea? For that matter, who needs an orchestra? The group´s elaborate, hypnotic vocal arrangement of "The Windmills of Your Mind" was as rich as any lineup of reeds and horns in jazz, ending with an uncanny imitation of two muted trumpets.

If any killjoys wondered what Dr. King might have had to do with all this, the answer was in the music. Take 6´s stock in trade is an all-flesh-and-blood, all-American integration — and I use the word on purpose — of gospel, blues, R&B, pop and whatever else can be danced to and happily harmonized. Even the group´s "classical" encore number, Randall Thompson´s "Alleluia," seemed completely in harmony with everything else they sang that evening.

The message was made explicit only once, when tenor Joey Kibble gave a brief sermon, about a minute long, describing what it feels like to hit your thumb with a hammer.

"When one part of the body is hurt, the rest of it compensates," he told the group. "We are all one body."

The fun reached a high point when each member of the group paid tribute to his musical influences. The members indulged in loving imitations of Prince, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire and — no kidding — the Doobie Brothers. Brothers Joey and Mark Kibble ended the tour de force with a vocal melisma battle that paid tribute to the elaborate vocal filigree of soul and blues singers while gently poking fun at them.

Despite the razzle-dazzle, part of me missed the diverse pastiche of speakers and artists at past King concerts, enhanced by the cozy three-sided confines of the Wharton Center´s Pasant Theatre. Maybe the task of adding and shifting speakers and performers in an endless quest for "diversity" year after year finally got too unwieldy. Whatever the logistics and politics of the event may be, there are solid arguments for keeping it focused on music. The concert´s new venue, the recently renovated Fairchild Theatre, is acoustically superb, and the jazz studies program is overflowing with talent and capable of pulling in top guest artists. Whitaker didn´t talk about the event´s new direction in his introduction, except to say that "change is the only constant in life."