The music of Kool & The Gang is still cool 

Robert “Kool” Bell is the last man standing. Of the seven original members who came together to form the group that millions of people know as Kool & The Gang, Bell is the only one who is still present.  

“Six of my members passed. We started with seven,” Bell said during a phone interview with Dennis J. Freeman. “This was before [James] JT [Taylor]. We called ourselves the Magnificent Seven. All my members have passed.”

When it was time for Kool & The Gang to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bell was not able to share the stage with the people who were with him at the beginning of the group’s success. 

However, Bell was able to share the special moment with Taylor, the lead vocalist on some of Kool & The Gang’s greatest hits, including “Too Hot,” “Fresh,” “Cherish,” and “Joanna.”

James “J.T.” Taylor, left, and Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang perform during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“JT came in 1979 and 1980,” Bell remarked. “He was the only one that came during that period. So it meant a lot to me and a lot to him. And the fans also.”   

Bell said it was only fitting that his group be added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

“I had been wondering when are we going to be inducted. I mean, they call it the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We have played for Van Halen. We’ve played for Elton John…all these rockers. Finally, they decided to induct us and then our fans voted us in,” he said. 

Bell and Kool & The Gang, appearing at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 15, have been doing this music thing for over sixty years. Members have come and gone. Yet the horn-driven sound of Kool & The Gang remains funky and fresh. 

“A lot of our songs were horn-driven, ‘Open Sesame,’ ‘Jungle Boogie,’ and all the stuff we did,” Bell quipped. “We didn’t have a lead singer until we came up with ‘Ladies Night.’ Of course, the music…we had to work around a lead singer.” 

Thanks to some words of wisdom provided by their parents, Bell said the longevity of the group centered on sticking by each other.   

“One of the things that our parents told us was that we make sure we stick together,” Bell said. “Whenever there’s a problem, there’s always a solution. That’s the first two things, and that was one of the keys. We stayed together as a family and we continued to play together, work together. It was all of us working together. Although my brother [Ronald Bell] was a key writer for a lot of those songs, we all were working together.”      

If you go by the numbers, the success of Kool & The Gang after more than six decades, could be measured in one word: celebration. That would also be the title of the group’s only No.1 hit on the Billboard 100 chart. 

Kool & the Gang
Old School: Robert “Kool” Bell (second right) and three other original members of Kool & the Gang. The members are George Brown (far left), Ronald Bell and Dennis Thomas. Courtesy photo

Numbers, however, do not define the cultural and societal impact of Kool & The Gang and the group’s sound. In other words, it is virtually immeasurable to look at statistics and put the success of Kool & The Gang in a box. 

Outside of “Celebration,” the band’s signature song, Kool & The Gang put out a dozen songs that charted in the Top Ten for Billboard. They placed 32 tunes on Billboard’s Top 100 list. The sound of Kool & The Gang goes beyond any statistical category. 

That’s why they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. That’s why they’ve been added to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. There’s a reason why this group is still going strong after giving us perennial party anthem songs such as “Jungle Boogie,” “Get Down on It,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Funky Stuff,” and “Ladies Night.” 

That song “Celebration” has made its rounds globally in weddings and other celebratory events. So when you look at Kool & The Gang and the totality of their sound, from jazz to funk to disco to R&B to pop with a dash of rock, you have one of the greatest bands to ever grace the stage.

The unique sound of Kool & The Gang is embedded in excellence in musicianship. But for a period, the vocal talent of Taylor meshed perfectly with that musical sound to deliver some of Kool & The Gang’s more memorable songs.

When that period came to a close, Bell and Kool & The Gang pressed on. The group is still moving forward. Bell describes the band’s sound today as one that has evolved. 

“Our identity would be a band who happens to sing, not a band who has a lead singer,” said Bell. “That’s our identity today, and we’re getting a lot of love all over the world. We’re a multi-group. We sing, we play, etc.”   

Lead Image Caption: Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & the Gang performs during the 39th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)


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