One of my ATF groups. Their contributions to music have been tremendous

Kool & the Gang

Few bands dominated the R&B charts in the 70s and 80s like Kool & the Gang. The group emerged from jazz beginnings in Jersey City in the 60s to become one of the heaviest and most successful funk bands on the planet, scoring massive hits like "Jungle Boogie," "Hollywood Swinging," and "Higher Plane" that relied mostly on fat horn riffs, deep grooves, and the ingenious bass lines of group leader Robert "Kool" Bell. The band was essentially instrumental at the time, employing little more than chants and soulful exhortations. Working with the Brazilian producer Eumir Deodato in 1979, the band brought in a real singer in James "J.T." Taylor and reinvigorated itself for another decade of hits, including the all-time wedding party anthem "Celebration." Kool is interviewed by Wayne Montana, whose nimble, complex bass patterns form the musical backbone of the Eternals. He also leads and plays guitar in I Kong Kult. —Peter Margasak

That riff of all time, the "Jungle Boogie" riff, has been in my mind since I was a little kid. How did that happen? Let me give you a little, quick story. Our record company at the time wanted us to get with a producer—the guy that was responsible for Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango. We said, "Hey, we can do our own thing. Why do we have to have a producer?" We went to a rehearsal hall that evening and started jamming. That night we wrote "Jungle Boogie," "Hollywood Swinging," and "Funky Stuff." After that the record company didn't give us any pressure anymore.

There's a clip on YouTube of you guys performing on an old TV show called The Midnight Special. You guys are wearing these incredible suits. They all have these superwide lapels with raised black typing on them. Of course, you have the baddest one, the bright yellow one. Any recollection of that suit? Yeah, that was a designer, a guy who was out of Jamaica but lived in Harlem. He came up with those bright colors, the whole Jamaican festival-bright look.

You guys have written so many great classic funk and soul tunes, and because of that have been sampled many, many times by hip-hop groups. How do you feel about that? We feel pretty good about it now. At one time we weren't getting any dough from it because people were just taking ideas and sampling. And then when they passed a law where you have to get sample clearance, the record companies wouldn't put them out unless they got sample clearance—and if not they have to pay a portion of the song to the writers of the sample.

So you guys feel like you've been treated fairly? Yeah, it lends creativity to some of these artists, like Will Smith with "Summertime," using "Summer Madness." I think that's his biggest record to date. And you have Diddy, at that time Puffy, with "Hollywood Swinging," Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Madonna. Janet took a little part of this here and there.

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• Damon Locks
• Wayne Montana

I know a little bit about your older style, when you were mixing more jazz influence into the music. I was very inspired by that as a young guy. Did you feel like you had to change with the times and leave the jazz vibe behind, go more into funk? When we started playing jazz back in the 60s, we weren't doing straight-up, straight-ahead jazz. We would do cover songs, people like Pharoah Sanders and McCoy Tyner. Those guys would be around in Jersey City playing on the weekends. My brother was influenced by John Coltrane and our saxophone player was into Cannonball Adderley and I was inspired by Ron Carter. We started by backing these groups in Jersey City, and we ended up getting the name the Soul Town Band, because we were the band for the Soul Town Review. Now the Soul Town Review had maybe about 15 or 16 artists and we would have to learn these songs, and the songs were all Motown hits, so the Soul Town Review was like the Motown Review in Jersey City. When we did the set by ourselves, we would do an instrumental version of some of these Motown hits, like "Since I Lost My Baby" or "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep." We would do a jazz/funk version because we didn't have the singers. That developed into the Kool & the Gang sound. That was the late 60s. In the 70s, we had songs like "Sea of Tranquility" and "Breeze & Soul" and "Chocolate Buttermilk" and "Raw Hamburgers." And then we had to back up a little bit on the style because we had to make room for a lead singer. Our producer at the time, Eumir Deodato, said, "Hey, you've got a singer in the group now, so you can't put all those riffs in there. You gotta work around." And he was very clever in what he did in producing us with "Ladies' Night" and some of the other stuff in the 80s.

How do you feel about this little trip you're doing with Van Halen? It's been quite interesting. We've been out for about two weeks. Tomorrow's our 12th show. David [Lee Roth] was telling me he saw us perform last year at the Glastonbury Music Festival, and when he was getting back together with Eddie and Alex Van Halen he said to Live Nation, "Hey, I'd like to have Kool & the Gang open up for us." I guess they was wondering, "What's going on with that?"

So David Lee Roth was pulling for you guys? Yeah, he said, "I saw 'em and I think they're the perfect fit." They were the rock party band of the 80s and we were the rock funk band of the 80s. He said, "We did 'Jump,' you did 'Celebration.' Let's go out and have a party."

So have you had any hangout time with them? Backstage, at sound checks. We chitchat a little bit. When we rehearsed out in LA, we had a little more time because we were putting our shows together. But yeah, we're having a good time. One review said it was it was ridiculous to have Kool & the Gang and Van Halen, but it was ridiculously awesome.

It's crazy how different the JT Taylor stuff is as opposed to their 70s stuff. Them and Van Halen? Wow, didn't see that coming.

Kool discovered Color Me Badd and got them a record deal.

scriptgirl said:

It's crazy how different the JT Taylor stuff is as opposed to their 70s stuff. Them and Van Halen? Wow, didn't see that coming.

The brothers gotta eat. LMAO. Why not get some of that Van Halen cheddar?

Wow! no idea re the Color Me Badd connection

MickyDolenz said:

Kool discovered Color Me Badd and got them a record deal.

really? didnt know that. Thanks Mick.

David [Lee Roth] was telling me he saw us perform last year at the Glastonbury Music Festival, and when he was getting back together with Eddie and Alex Van Halen he said to Live Nation, "Hey, I'd like to have Kool & the Gang open up for us." I guess they was wondering, "What's going on with that?"

So David Lee Roth was pulling for you guys? Yeah, he said, "I saw 'em and I think they're the perfect fit."

I knew it was Dave.

Why did you know it was Dave?

scriptgirl said:

Why did you know it was Dave?

Because he is musically diverse and a ol skoll rnb funk etc lover. If it were not for him Van Halen would never have covered tunes like Dancin In The Streets, Big Bad Bill, done Ice Cream Man etc. Theybwould have been another Kiss rock act instead of the party fun rockers they are known for. Thats all Daves doing with his jovial and true rock n roll spirit. I even stated that it was probably Daves doing in the previous VH threads back in January etc. But any VH fan probably thought the same thing too.

^^On a related note, Vince Neil from Motley Crue said he was a big fan of The Temptations growing up in Compton.

MickyDolenz said:

^^On a related note, Vince Neil from Motley Crue said he was a big fan of The Temptations growing up in Compton.

Vince was raised in Compton? "I did not know that"-Johnny Carson

rdhull said:

MickyDolenz said:

^^On a related note, Vince Neil from Motley Crue said he was a big fan of The Temptations growing up in Compton.

Vince was raised in Compton? "I did not know that"-Johnny Carson

He mentioned it in the group autobiography The Dirt.

Kool & the Gang Still Celebrating Good Times

BY THOMAS CONNER Pop Music Critic tconner@suntimes.com March 29, 2012 8:30PM

Original members Dennis Thomas (from left), George Brown, Robert “Kool” Bell and Ronald Bell continue to tour as Kool & the Gang.

Trust me on this one: Don’t dilly-dally on your way to the next Van Halen show. Get there on time, get your beer, get your seats and don’t miss the opening act.

It looks weird on paper, I know: silky-smooth R&B pros Kool & the Gang opening for full-throttle rock goons Van Halen. But it works — at least it did when the tour first stopped here in February — the musicianship is superb and, hey, Diamond Dave knew it would be a heckuva party.

“When I met with David Lee [Roth] at a rehearsal, he mentioned to me that in the early days, they used to play Kool & the Gang in the clubs, and he loved it,” bassist and co-founder Robert “Kool” Bell told the Sun-Times last week. “We talked about doing this tour, and he said, ‘Sixty percent of the audience is ladies, and you guys wrote “Ladies Night.” Let’s just go out and have a party.’ That’s how he ran it by me. I said, ‘Yeah, let’s get down on it!’ ”

Back in the Chicago area this weekend — another date among the 52 booked this spring in front of Van Halen’s reunion tour with Roth — Kool & the Gang is riding a wave of accolades for its funky, adrenaline-juicing set that includes such hits as “Jungle Boogie,” “Too Hot,” “Ladies Night,” “Get Down on It” and, of course, “Celebration.”

In addition to Bell, the current 11-member Gang includes his younger brother and co-founder Ronald (saxophone, keyboards), plus original drummer George Brown and horn player-percussionist Dennis Thomas.

Kool & the Gang began life in 1964 as the Jazziacs, then Kool & the Flames. By the first record in 1969, they’d become Kool & the Gang.

“We grew up listening to jazz, and the Jazziacs, yeah, we were doing our little thing, trying to play straight-ahead jazz. Just young guys trying to swing,” Bell recalled. “It evolved because after that, we got involved with an organization called the Soul Town Revue. We’d do these Motown songs, backing up singers locally in Jersey City. We had to learn these big hits in the ’60s — the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, also James Brown. We started to create that sound that became the Kool & the Gang sound, a mix of jazz and R&B. The horn section was key. That took us into the ’70s.”

It also took them on a collision course with disco. The music of Kool & the Gang has always been eminently danceable without veering into the pejorative side of disco. The group’s only Grammy, however, was earned for its appearance on the soundtrack to 1977’s “Saturday Night Fever.” But the song there, “Open Sesame,” is pure funk — a nimble groove with that jumpy horn section, punctuated by hilarious exhortations (“I am the king of funk! Everybody get down!” and “Get on your camel and ride!”)

“We survived disco,” Bell said, laughing. “ ‘Saturday Night Fever’ hit right during the anti-disco movement, and right after that is when we decided to get a lead singer. A promoter working with the Jacksons tour said, ‘You guys need a lead singer.’ We said [hesitantly], ‘OK.’ Earth, Wind & Fire had Maurice White and the Commodores had Lionel Richie. The owners of the studio where we were working knew James ‘J.T.’ Taylor, and it was clear pretty quick he was the guy.”

Then the hits really started happening. “Ladies Night” crossed over from the R&B chart to the pop chart in 1979. Taylor (now a solo act) allowed the band to try real ballads, which also scored high on the charts (“Cherish,” “Too Hot”).

In 1980, the band released the album “Celebrate!” with its lead single, “Celebration.”

“We’d been out at the [1979] American Music Awards and had just won three awards,” Bell said, “and we were feeling pretty good. It was that night, my brother said, ‘Why don’t we do a song called “Celebration,” ’cause that’s what we’re doing!’ Sounded good to me. I didn’t know we’d just decided to make our biggest record. That’s just what the vibe was.”

That celebratory Kool & the Gang vibe translates across genres. The band, which last released an album in 2007, has opened for rock acts before, including Meat Loaf and Def Leppard, and last year wound up on the bill at Glastonbury, one of England’s biggest rock festivals.

That’s where Roth was reminded of Kool’s magic. “That whole week you had people like U2, Paul Simon, Coldplay, and we played the closing night,” Bell said. “[Roth] saw us on the BBC. We had 50,000 rock fans in front of our stage, and we rocked ’em. He apparently told his band, ‘We’ve got to have them as part of our tour.’ ”

How familiar was Bell with Van Halen’s music? “Not too familiar,” he said, “but, you know, Eddie [Van Halen] did that bit on ‘Beat It’ with Michael Jackson.”

Going by the 1964 start date, Bell’s band is approaching a 50th anniversary in pop music — and he’s busy. After the Van Halen tour winds down, Bell has three separate projects in the works:

He’s working on a musical: Bell has been working with stage hitmaker Ben Elton (“We Will Rock You,” “Love Never Dies”) on a “Jersey Boys”-like jukebox musical about Kool & the Gang’s history. The working title, of course, is “It’s a Celebration!”

He’s crafting a reality TV show: America is littered with wanna-be musicians, people who started a band when they were young but eventually acquiesced to a professional office career. Many still play in bands on the weekends, though — and Bell wants to revive their abandoned dreams. His show, “Makin’ It Kool,” would find him “popping in on these people to say, ‘Hey, you could make it Kool again!’ ”

He’s planning a star-studded new album: “My brother and I are working on a project with guests, a concept album. We’ve been talking to Bootsy Collins and Nile Rodgers, and we’ve been reaching out to Verdine White [of Earth, Wind & Fire] and Charlie Wilson [of the Gap Band]. It’ll be sort of a funk, I guess, funk-pop record. It would be great if we could get Eddie to be on it.”

I think it would have been cool if the Original 7ven could have done this tour too.

Glad to see Kool & the Gang so busy with a bunch of projects lined up. I'm looking forward to seeing them in June.

Good thread.

TonyVanDam said:

Good thread.

Yeah, beats the hell outa all these threads about people dying, dealing with disease, or losing everything due to substance abuse!!!

Saw them last week opening for VH. They were great and received a good response from the crowd.