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By A Web Design
Kool and The Gang is a group of jazz-funk and funk formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States in 1964. Leading group of the 1970s and have great inspiration from the mainstream music world that would follow such rap and most importantly, the R'n'B.
Kool And The Gang cancel their dates in Europe in early July because of the risk of extending their tour of stadiums and arenas in the United States with VAN HALEN. The concert at Olympia on 05 July 2012 is replaced by Earth Wind & Fire Experience Featuring Al McKay, which are not stopping from filling our halls in Paris: Bataclan, 29 March 2012 and Trianon of June 28, 2012 SOLD OUT!
People who purchased tickets for Kool and The Gang can exchange them with a ticket for Earth Wind and fire Experience Feat. Al McKay or a ask for a refund of their ticket from their original point of sale before 05 July 2012.
The history of Kool and The Gang began in 1964, in Jersey City, when the brothers Robert and Ronald Bell founded with some childhood and high school friends (Dennis Thomas, Charles Smith, George Brown, Robert Spike Mickens and later Ricky Westfield) a jazz band called The Jazziacs. The father of the Bell brothers is a professional boxer, a great lover of jazz and friend of legendary pianist Thelonious Monk but also Miles Davis (boxing fan), which often comes to visit him for advice on boxing technique. Also, the Bell brothers and their friends will meet, as teenagers, legends of jazz such as McCoy Tyner (who will offer Ronald Bell to join his band, seeing in him a worthy successor of John Coltrane), Bud Powell, John Lewis or Pharaoh Sanders (they will perform the first parts from the biginning), in addition to those previously mentioned.
The Jazziacs, which later became The Monikers, Soul Town Review (when the band tours with the Temptations or The Four Tops), The New Dimensions and Kool and the Flames (in homage to James Brown's Famous Flames) is fast becoming known on the New York scene in Greenwich Village and the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem where they play very frequently. The group is made up of Robert "Kool" Bell on bass, Ronald "Khalis" Bell in tenor, soprano and keyboards, Dennis "DT" Thomas on alto saxophone, flute and percussion, George "Funky" Brown on drums, Robert "Spike" Mickens on trumpet, and Claydies "Charles" Smith on guitar. Mainly influenced by jazz, blues and the artists surrounding them since their adolescence but also the soul of Motown and James Brown they naturaly develop a unique style at the intersection of all these influences and that they qualify as "jazz-funk" (to which they will then be amongst the major contributors).
In 1969, producer Gene Redd noticed them and offers them a record deal on his label Redd Coach Records (which later became the famous De Lite Records label). To avoid confusion with the Famous Flames of James Brown, the group agreed to sign and change its name: they will now be called Kool and the Gang (the name confusion was originaly born one night in a club when the programmer misspelled the name. With great humor, they definitely adopted that name).
James Brown refers to them as: "They're the second-baddest out there ... Such bad records make Theys That You Got to Be Careful When You play a new tape on the way home from the record store. Their groove is so strong You Could Wreck ". The jazz guitarist Grant Green takes the same title from their first album Let the music take your mind.
If their first albums are very jazzy, with titles like Who's Gonna Take the Weight or Chocolate Buttermilk, they get an honorable success, they will wait for the release of the album Wild & Peaceful in 1973 to see the first commercial success with emblematic songs such as Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging Jungle Boogie or (back in 1994 with the soundtrack of the film Pulp Fiction). Between 1969 and 1978, Kool and The Gang is recognized as one of the most creative and influential jazz-funk band. And it was really on stage when the band reaches its fullness, the quality of its musicians and its horn section, like the one of Earth, Wind and Fire and Tower of Power, has a solid reputation.
In 1977, trombonist Clifford Adams, jazz musician and renowned session man joined the group (he is still a member). In 1981, during the recording of the album Something Special, Kool and the Gang welcomes two other great musicians, trumpeter Michael Ray (Sun Ra Akestra, etc ...) and the young prodigy keyboards player Curtis Fitzgerald Williams.
In the late 1970s, disco was in full swing and many funk groups are turning to a more pop music to reach a wider audience.
In 1978, Ronald Khalis Bell holds a hearing to recruit a singer. James JT Taylor, a teacher from New Jersey and club singer, is the first to appear (on the recommendation of the musician / producer / arranger Eumir Deodato). Khalis plays some piano notes and is stunned when he heard Taylor sing. he hires him immidiatly.
Meanwhile, in early 1970 the group met musician / arranger Eumir Deodato, who is also a highly respected produce (he, among others, signed the music for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick-excerpt from a composition by Richard Strauss, and written a multitude of arrangements for many artists including Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack or Bjork, to name a few). With their experience and driven by a common passion: jazz, they decide to join. Thus began a collaboration that lasted 10 years and four albums: Ladies Night (1979), Celebration (1980), Something Special (1981) and As One (1982). This time, Deodato said during an interview with the magazine Waxpoetics in 2003: "... for me it was wonderful to work with them (Kool & the Gang), it was a pleasure ... was Kool and the Gang ... "(No. 7 Waxpoetics page 60).
The voice and the charisma of JT Taylor combined with the ingenious effectiveness of co-productions Kool and the Gang / Deodato give quick results. Many of their titles will therefore become international hits.
The 1980s are the glory years of the group that issues songs in the top charts: Ladies Night (1979), Too Hot (1979), Celebration (1980), Jones vs. Jones (1980), Get down on it (1981) , Take My Heart (1981), Let's go dancing (1982), Joanna (1983), Tonight (1983), Straight Ahead (1983), Cherish (1985) or Fresh (1984), Emergency (1984), Victory (1986 ) and Stone Love (1986).
The song Celebration (2 million copies sold in the U.S.) is chosen as the anthem of the returning of the U.S. hostages in Iran. The group's live performances are real shows, combining music with orchestrated instrumental virtuosity, sophisticated choreography and being sold out.
End of 1987, James Taylor decided to move to a solo career. They split up in a friendly manner. Between 1989 and 1993, Taylor released four solo albums: Master of The Game (co produced by Eumir Deodato) (1989), Feel The Need (1991), Baby I'm Back (co-produced by Ronald Khalis Bell) (1993). He gets honorable success (in the U.S. and England) with titles such as Sister Rosa (1989), 8 Days A Week (1989), or Long Hot Summer Night (1991).
On their side, the remaining members of Kool and The Gang replaced Taylor with three vocalists: Skip Martin (Dazz Band member and also a trumpet player), Odeen Mays (also on keyboards) and Shawn Mc Quiles (also on guitar) (singer Gary Brown will perfomr on some studio tracks, album Greatest Hits and more in 1988). But the audience is used to the voice and image of Taylor's, so albums Sweat (1989) and Unite (1993) do not break in the charts. However, the group organizes tours in the early 1990s with the band. They are a triumph in Europe and Asia. Regularly touring around the world (about a hundred dates a year, almost without interruption since 1972) Kool and the Gang has recorded numerous live DVD, including 2000: Live at the House of Blues (recorded in Chicago).
In 1995, the public demands JT Taylor come back. And to revive the career of each but also for artistic desire, Taylor rejoined the group: they recorded the album State of Affairs (1996), in which the group discusses topics with a social connotation (but its distribution is restricted). Then follows a long international tour of three years ending in March 1999 (which ended with a live DVD recorded in Jamaica).
DJs will remix Celebration and Get Down On It which will become english top of the charts.
Meanwhile, in 1996, most of their albums of the 1970s were reissued on CD, making a new generation to rediscover their jazz-funk period. The young Chicago jazz musician Brian Culbertson also takes one of their songs Hollywood Swinging on his album Bringing Back the Funk in 2008 (produced by Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire).
Up to now, Kool and the Gang is along with James Brown, the largest group sampled, including the internationally renowned artists such as Beastie Boys (in 1989 on "Hey Ladies" in 1992 and "Professor Booty") , Madonna (in 1992 on "Erotica") or Janet Jackson (in 1994 on "You Want This"). One can also hear a sample of their song "Jungle Jazz" on the hit of Marrs "Pump up the Volume" (1987), or "NT" on "It Is not Hard To Tell" by Nas in 1994.
Again, Taylor left the band for a solo career.
In 1999, at the request of the Japanese producer Takamoto Nozawa, he agrees to participate in the album Smappies II, along with the top of jazz musicians in New York, on the Beginning of Feeling, produced for the company JVC and recorded in New York. His interpretation reveals his ease as well as in jazz or funk.
In 2000, he released the album A Brand New Me which vocal arrangements and production are critically acclaimed but of which only singles Sex On The Beach and How will become honorable commercial success.
Called a living legend of the "Great Black Music" (the prestigious Rhythm & Blues Foundation, on his 20 years anniversary, was honored with a Pioneer Award in 2003), the group now comprises 11 members (Robert Kool Bell, Ronald Khalis Bell, George Brown, Dennis Thomas, DeeTee, Curtis Williams, Clifford Adams, Michael Ray, Larry Gittens, Tim Horton, Amir Bayyan, Shawn Mc Jirmad Quiller and Gordon), among wich four founding members (since 45 years).
The guitarist, founding member, Claydies "Charles" Smith, died in June 2006, after a long illness. He had stopped touring since January 2006. Kool and the Gang were playing on stage with the Symphony Orchestra of New Jersey when they heard about his death. They dedicated the concert.
In November 2010, Kool and The Gang is still in mourning. Robert "Spike" Mickens, trumpeter and founding member dies. He had been part of the group's history from the beginning, in 1964, at the time of The Jazziacs. Because of a fragile health, he stopped touring in 1986.
As its reputation says, and essentially a live band, Kool and the Gang continues to perform concerts around the world, sold out (in the 2000s, the group perfomed many times in France). In June 2008, 20,000 spectators came to cheer them at the Montereau-Fault-Yonne Fastival. In December 2009, the group gave a free concert (and for which they have not asked for any revenue) described as historic in Havana in Cuba in front of 260,000 spectators. Upon arrival in Cuba, a huge crowd was waiting for them. Just before going on stage, Robert Kool Bell has some words for the Cuban people: "We are entirely devoted to music and we come to Cuba as musicians, this concert ... is about brotherhood and union among the peoples. " During the concert, they invited local musicians to play. On stage, the group can go up to 14 members, they alternate their jazzy songs of the 1970s with their hits of the 1980s and also perform the new titles.
In July 2007, the band released the album Still Kool (very well received by the critics to US), which alternates jazz, soul, funk, rock and r'n'b modern beats but very few will remain on the air. At that time, Ronald Khalis Bell said in an interview granted to AFP (Los Angeles) in July 2007: "Many people like us, we make the same kind of music we were doing 20 or 30 years before, ... But try to redo what you've done is very annoying. So that's why we made a record that has more "conscience".
James JT Taylor continues to do concerts mainly in the United States and would release a new album in 2009 (whose publication was delayed until autumn 2011).
For the sake of authenticity and sincerity music, the band remains true to its roots and systematically refuses to change style to reflect the current trend in the music industry. In this regard, Ronald Khalis Bell said in 2007: "We tried ... it does not work. It's like a fish out of his element ".
Kool and the Gang holds the longevity record of R & B groups still active, for 42 years.
The group was honored throughout his career with numerous awards, including a Pioneer Award, two Grammy Awards and seven American Music Awards.
