I just had a listen to my Kool And The Gang 1969-1976 Funk Essentials album...and i just had to think...They are funky as hell!!
The jams are simple...the melodies are beautiful...and the musicianship is brilliant...read that their lead guy...Ronald Bell knoes how to play a lot of instruments too...love his keyboard solo on "Summer Madness"...the definite summer jam!!
I dont like the post-Celebration Kool...i think their style in this era was their best...i wanna get their albums...but i cant find them on CD...havent they released it on CD yet or are they still on vinyl?

Ecnirp84

ecnirp84 said:

There are several early albums on CD. I have Love and Understanding and Light of Worlds, which includes the original version of Summer Madness. Start with those. Found mine on DVD Empire

ecnirp84 said:

I Echo your sentiments.

ecnirp84 said:

To me it's eerie how close that era's Kool & The Gang could sound like James Brown's band back in the late 60s thru early 70s in spots. Kool & The Gang back then were a Funk band, with sometimes jazzy overtones. 80s K&TG was an R&B/Pop group. Too Pop for my tastes.

I love the old Kool and The Gang stuff. When I heard "Rated X" (from 1972) for the first time about 10 years ago, I couldn't believe it was Kool and The Gang! Before that, I had only heard their 80's stuff. Now that I'm more familiar with their 70's production, I can't understand what the heck they were doing in the 80’s...

"Summer madness"is the ultimate
slow jam masterpiece in my opinion.
the rhodes intro has been used & abused over & over.
I first saw them live in Stockholm back in 1988.
of course they just performed their eighties pop stuff
then,but when I saw them again in 2000 they did songs
from their earliest albums & did joints like
"Jungle boogie","Funky stuff"
& "Summer madness".
also they performed "Sea of tranquility".
the instrumental song that D'angelo used as a ground
4 "Send it on".
/peace manki