*It’s hard to believe, but the forever young Kool & The Gang have been on the scene making music for over half a century and they’re still going strong.
On the heels of their appearance this past 4th of July weekend at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the group is in the throes of promoting their new single “Sexy (Where’d You Get Yours).” As Soul Tracks notes, it’s a fresh, fun and funky cut filled with punchy horns and a steady beat that’s bound to get you moving.
Check it out:
Kool & The Gang backgrounder (via Wikipedia):
Kool & the Gang is an American jazz, R&B, soul, funk, and disco group, originally formed in 1964 as the Jazziacs based in Jersey City, New Jersey.
They went through several musical phases during their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then funk and R&B, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound. They have sold over 70 million albums worldwide.
The group’s main members over the years included brothers Robert “Kool” Bell (Muhammad Bayyan) on bass and Ronald Bell (Khalis Bayyan) on tenor saxophone, lead vocalist James “J.T.” Taylor, George Brown on drums, Larry Gittens on trumpet, Dennis Thomas on alto saxophone, Claydes Charles Smith on guitar, and Rick West (Westfield) on keyboards.
Early success
In 1964, thirteen-year-old Robert Bell, his brother Ronald and five high-school friends formed an instrumental band called ‘the Jazziacs’. They played an opening set every Sunday at jazz night at a small theatre.[3] They changed their name to ‘Kool & the Flames’ in 1967, then ‘Kool & the Gang’ in 1969 (to avoid confusion with James Brown’s Famous Flames) and were signed by Gene Redd to his new record label De-Lite Records in 1969.
The Bell brothers’ father Bobby and uncle Tommy were boxers. They moved to New York to train and lived in the same apartment building as Thelonious Monk who became Robert’s godfather when he was born. Miles Davis would drop by because he wanted to be a boxer. They played occasionally with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas.
Get MORE at Wikipedia.
Get Kool & The Gang’s full tour schedule at: www.koolandthegang.com.
