Recognize the songs “Celebration,” “Cherish,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Summer Madness,” and “Ladies Night”?
Kool and the Gang, the multi-Grammy winning R&B super group formed by several friends from Jersey City, has had 25 Top Ten R&B hits and 31 gold and platinum albums in their illustrious career.
Despite the fact that their heyday was in the 1970s and 1980s, the group is still going strong, performing in concerts starting this month into next April from New York to Hollywood and overseas. Their only New Jersey date will be on July 25 at the Quick Chek Festival of Ballooning in Readington.
Among their dates locally is a special performance at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Manhattan on July 24 to acknowledge the 40th anniversary of their debut album, titled appropriately “Kool and the Gang,” a hard hitting 10-song set.
Before they became the jazz-soul-funk ensemble that was too hot for the dance floor, brothers Khalis Bayyan (formerly Ronald Bell) and his brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, were friends with Robert Mickens, Dennis Thomas, Ricky Westfield, George Brown, and Charles Smith. They were all young Jersey City musicians in the early 1960s working hard on their craft as a backup band, doing gigs with several identities such as The Jazziacs, The New Dimensions, The Soul Town Band, and Kool & The Flames.
Current Montclair resident Robert Bell, who came to Jersey City in 1961 as a 12-year-old with his mom and brother Ronald, recently talked about staying “fresh” after five decades of music.
Still ‘Kool’ with each other
Even though some of the founding members are deceased and other members have come and gone over the years, Kool and the Gang are only a few weeks from going back on the road, kicking off in Sardinia, Italy this coming Friday, June 19. The current members on this tour are Bell, his brothers Ronald and Emir Bayyan, Dennis Thomas, George Brown, Clifford Adams, Michael Ray, Shawn McQuiller, Jirmad Gordon, and Curtis Williams.
What is the secret to not just staying cool but also staying together as a group?
Bell looks back at his parents’ advice, as well as how the band formed.
“The tough crowds were when you crossed the Hudson and went to places like the Apollo Theatre.” – Robert Bell
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Performed in Jersey City venues
The family started bonding in the early 1960s when the brothers Bell met up with fellow music lovers at Public School 22 on Van Horne Street. They started performing in Jersey City venues such as the old Fairmount Hotel, the Stanley Theatre and Lafayette Park.
Then they would venture over to New York to really build up their musical chops.
“The tough crowds were when you crossed the Hudson and went to places like the Apollo Theatre,” Bell said.
Bell also says the glue for their long-term success is their popularity in the international market, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and Canada. The band will headline in the coming weeks at the Festival International De Jazz de Montreal on July 1 and Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in July 15.
40 years of hot and fresh
Bell looked back at the inaugural album, which came out in July 1969 on the DeLite Records label. They had rehearsed in a community center located next to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Summit Avenue in Jersey City and recorded at the old Bell Sound music studio in New York City.
Bell remembered the album as an homage to their musical influences.
“There were Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakely, as well as Motown and James Brown,” Bell said.
But Bell said there are no plans to perform their first album in its entirety during their 40th anniversary tour, although they will play some cuts.
“We will do some cuts from that album and our hits from the ’70s, some from the ’80s and some from our new album, which came out last year, called ‘Kool and the Gang’s Still Kool,’ ” Bell said.
The debut album has also gained a following as the songs have been sampled or redone such as the bass line from “Sea of Tranquility” used by the singer D’Angelo for his 2000 song “Send It On.”
Is JC a future tour stop?
Bell still visits his mother-in-law and cousins in Jersey City. There are no scheduled performing dates there this year, but he hopes to have Kool and the Gang play the Liberty Jazz Festival, which usually occurs in September. They performed last year at the festival.
“If there is possibility, we will come back to the festival next year since we don’t like performing in the same place two years in a row,” Bell said.
For more on tour dates and keeping up with the band, visit: www.koolandthegang.com.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonrreporter.com.