Kool & the Gang

Kool & the Gang are a highly successful American jazz/R&B/soul/funk/disco group. They originally formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA in 1964. They went through several musical phases in their career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, becoming practitioners of R&B and funk, progressing to a smooth disco ensemble, and ended the successful period of their career producing pop/R&B crossovers.

The group's main members over the years included brothers Robert Bell (known as Kool) on bass (born October 8, 1950, Youngstown, Ohio) and Ronald Bell on tenor saxophone (born November 1, 1951, Youngstown, Ohio); George Brown on drums; Robert Mickens on trumpet; Dennis Thomas on alto saxophone; Two Fingers Mikiel on tuba; Claydes Charles Smith on guitar and Rick Westfield on keyboards. The Bell brothers' father was an acquaintance of Thelonious Monk and the brothers were friends with Leon Thomas.

In 1964 Robert formed an instrumental band called the Jazziacs with five high school friends. They changed their name to Kool & the Gang and were signed by Gene Redd to his then new De-Lite Records. They first hit the pop charts with the release of their debut, eponymous album.

Though none of the three singles from the album went far on the pop charts, their R&B success was swift and massive. Several live and studio albums followed, with 1973's Wild and Peaceful breaking into the mainstream with 'Jungle Boogie' and 'Hollywood Swinging'. Many reviews see the Gang's 1974 album Light of Worlds and 1975 album Spirit of the Boogie as the greatest achievements of the band, with the 1975 single 'Summer Madness' gaining much attention. However, after those albums the band abandoned deep funk music and switched to disco. Generally, the albums released after 1975 have not received the same critical recognition as their early work.

The late 1970s saw a lull in Kool & the Gang's career that ended after new lead singer James "JT" Taylor joined the group. 1979's 'Ladies' Night' spawned a 25-year-long tradition of ladies' nights in New Jersey dance clubs and bars. Their only number one hit was 1980's 'Celebration', from Celebrate!, produced by Eumir Deodato. More international hits followed in the early 1980s, including 'Big Fun', 'Get Down On It' and 'Joanna'. Their 1984 album Emergency yielded four Top 20 hits, including 'Fresh' and 'Cherish'. Their chart presence stopped abruptly after the Forever album, when both Taylor and Ronald Bell (who started using the name Khalis Bayyan) left the group; both would eventually return, but the hits would not.

Kool & the Gang rose to some popularity again in 1994 after 'Jungle Boogie' was featured on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's hit cult classic Pulp Fiction.

'Hollywood Swinging' was used by Jon Arons in his dance/trombone number on Steve Harvey Show, thus earning him the title, The Trombone Guy. 'Hollywood Swinging' was also sampled by DJ Kool in his song 'Let Me Clear My Throat'.

Kool and the Gang's 'Summer Madness', from their 1974 album Light of Worlds, has been sampled numerous times. Most notably, it was used by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince for their version of 'Summertime' as well as being featured in the 1976 movie Rocky. Also, Live at PJ's' track 'N.T.' has been sampled extensively, by artists such as Boogie Down Productions, Brand Nubian, De La Soul, N.W.A and Kriss Kross.

UK DJ (Rob Jones) perspective of the era: 'Open Sesame' was considered to be a serious piece of high-quality underground jazz funk which had been around in the clubs for quite some time before it finally reached a massive audience in the movie Saturday Night Fever. Although the movie only shows an edited version of the song, it needs to be played in full for its true dancefloor impact to be appreciated, which in terms of quality, puts it right alongside tunes such as the Trammps' 'Disco Inferno'. The production and incredible sound of 'Open Sesame' coming from those top-end disco speakers surrounding the dance floors in those days literally filled the air to the point where it felt like an irresistible, all-powerful entity in its own right.

To read more about Kool & the Gang:

www.koolandthegang.com