Kool & The Gang: A Timeless Celebration

Finding music that you like is an easy task. Of the millions of artists and billions of songs out there, you’re bound to discover something you’ll enjoy. Searching for tracks that you and your parents can appreciate together — now that’s somewhat more difficult, though not impossible. Now, coming across something that you, your parents, your grandparents, and possibly your kids can all find to be good — does that even happen? You could disagree, but we’re going to challenge this and claim that Kool & The Gang does in fact fall into that last category. The conception of the band dates over 50 years now, but their sound remains timeless. Although they have evolved stylistically throughout the decades — from their jazzy beginnings to their subsequent incorporation of R&B and funk — creating high-quality music was always the priority. Their longevity resulted from not having pursued short-lived, commercial gimmicks that many other acts fell prey to along the years. To further illustrate their multi-generational appeal, songs (especially in hip-hop) that have sampled Kool & The Gang’s music have also become classics — notably Fresh Prince & Jazzy Jeff’s “Summertime,” Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” Luniz’s “I Got 5 On It” & Wu-Tang Clan’s “Method Man.” The average musician struggles to maintain relevance beyond a few years time; The Gang has never once lost momentum in their fifty-year span as a band. In this year alone, they’ve performed over a hundred shows internationally, this time even at Hong Kong’s annual music event Clockenflap Music and Arts Festival. There, we were blessed enough to be able to catch up with the group leader himself, Mr. Robert “Kool” Bell. Check out the exchange we had below, and take a look through the photos we took of their performance at Clockenflap.

You got into the music industry at a very young age. Tell us about that.

Yeah we started young; I was only 14, 15 years old. We were listening to jazz every day at a young age. One of the first names we called ourselves were the Jazziacs, and then we were Kool & The Flames and finally Kool & The Gang in 1968. It was a great experience because you’re young and you get to learn about the business and about the music. We started playing locally at a place called the Coffee House and backing up local people who had an organization called Soul Town. They were doing songs from Mo Town and Jersey City. We had to learn all the songs and that’s when the music sound changed from the jazz to the R&B — which created the Kool & The Gang sound in 1969 when our first record came out.

Being that young, did you guys know what you were doing? If you could go back in time, Would you have done anything differently?

Nah, nah…we would keep it the same. I mean, we was young. Well let’s put it this way — we were learning and going with the music. Like I said, different people would come through to the Coffee House, like Pharaoh Sanders and some of the other jazz musicians, so it was a great thing because we was young and growing and we had a love for jazz a love for R&B. It became the Kool & The Gang sound which pushed us to the 70s, I would say, with songs like “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinger,” “Funky Stuff,” “Summer Madness” – and then the 80s: “Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Get Down On It” and then “Cherish.”

Do you follow the music of today? Is there anybody in particular that you like?

Yeah, yeah. I mean you have people like Pharrell – he’s doing his thing. Bruno Mars, Usher, and some of the younger guys — JAY Z, some of the other guys — U2, Coldplay, Rod Stewart, and Elton John – they’re all doing their thing.

Out of these guys that you listed, who do you vibe with most?

I would say Bruno Mars. He’s a young guy. He’s like a young Kool & The Gang, with him doing the steps, you know! (Chuckles) Chris Brown, Usher; they’re all doing their thing.

I heard that you guys toured with Kid Rock and Van Halen.

We did 48 shows with Van Halen, 10 shows with Kid Rock, and we also did a couple shows with the Dave Matthews Band, with Bryan Adams, we’re going do a show with Cheap Trick when we get back from Hong Kong.

Who else would you like to tour or do a show with?

I always say — I hope they are listening — but one day, The Rolling Stones. That would be a great collaboration. I mean we worked with other greats like Stevie Wonder. We did two big concerts out in LA with Gladys Knight — you know, we mix it up. The Commodores, Earth, Wind and Fire…yeah.

What did you think about the UK drunk-driving campaign “Think! Don’t Drink Drive” using your song “Celebration” as part of the soundtrack?

I just saw that the other day. It was kind of strange to me (laughs). Who celebrates driving and crashing? I guess I know it’s a warning for what’s after celebrating and drinking too much; I understand the concept. But what’s weird is that when we think of “Celebration,” we think of parties, weddings, and marriages — good things. Not death and crashing and people getting hurt (laughs).

Did it upset you?

Nah, nah. I understand the concept behind what the video was trying to say. Like I said, we like to keep it on the happy side.

A lot of musicians remix your tracks. What are your thoughts on sampling?

Well, it depends how it’s used. There’s been some pretty nice ones, like Will Smith’s “Summertime” with “Summer Madness.” And then we had the one with Puffy – Diddy as they call him – with Ma$e in the song “Feel So Good Hollywood.” It’s a pretty nice collaboration in using the sample I’m on.

So what is your all-time favorite song that you’ve been sampled on?

I would say “Summertime” by Will Smith.

If you had the power to change anything in the music industry today, what would it be?

Well I would like it to stay more creative. Back in the 70s, you had bands out there touring, and record companies really get behind these band and support them, giving them that room of creativity, that way they can grow — and I support that. Right now it’s more about the dollar. If you’re not making any sales right away then they go on to the next group that are selling records. So I’d like to see more of that — bands having more time to develop themselves and stay original and having that creativity.

We know you are still going strong with the touring. What do you do outside of that?

We do about a hundred shows a year. Downtime I like to just spend time with the family, wife, children, grandchildren; get away from what I normally do all the time. Maybe learn how to play a little golf, or kind of like that — something different.

You’ve been making music and performing for almost 50 years now, and you’re still going at it. What drives you?

Well I think it’s the music; our fans. People really love us and come out and support us around the world — I mean because we pretty much tour the world…although we haven’t been to Hong Kong in about 20 years, so we’re really excited about that. So I think we do what we do for the love of the music, and bringing joy and happiness to our audience around the world.