"TRUTH IN RHYTHM" - Robert "Kool" Bell (Kool and the Gang)

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Brought to you by Funknstuff.net and hosted by Scott Goldfine — musicologist and author of “Everything Is on the One: The First Guide of Funk” ― “TRUTH IN RHYTHM” is the interview show that gets DEEP into the pocket with contemporary music’s foremost masters of the groove.

Featured in Episode 73: A true giant of funk, R&B and pop music -- founder and leader of Kool & the Gang, bassist Mr. Robert “Kool” Bell. As the group celebrates 50 years of releasing records in 2019, it also looks back on one of the most successful string of hit songs ever generated by any act in any genre. Between Kool & the Gang’s 1969 debut album and the late 1970s, the jazz-trained ensemble rang up 22 top 40 R&B singles, most of which were among the greatest funk tracks ever produced. They included classics like “Funky Stuff,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Spirit of the Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Music Is the Message,” “Higher Plane,” “Soul Vibration,” “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight,” “Love and Understanding,” “Open Sesame,” “Pneumonia,” “N.T.,” “Love the Life You Live,” “Good Times,” “Slick Superchick” and so many more -- plus the dreamy instrumental “Summer Madness.”

Their distinctive sound of urgent syncopated rhythms, powerful and brassy horn blasts, group vocal chants and overall house party atmosphere was evident right from the very first record -- and unlike anything else even during funk’s peak era. Having peaked in 1973 with the immensely popular Wild and Peaceful album that included three top 5 R&B singles, all of which also cracked the pop top 30, by the end of the decade the band had lost its spark and was faltering among the rise and demise of disco and swell of smoother R&B.

Kool & the Gang went into the studio and reinvented itself unlike perhaps any group had before or has after. Enlisting a true lead singer for the first time in James “J.T.” Taylor and bringing in Eumir Deodato to produce, the band unveiled a much more polished sound in 1979 with the release of the Ladies Night album and what turned out to be a No. 1 R&B and top 10 pop smash in the title cut. Kool & the Gang would spend the next decade as one of pop’s leading hitmakers, amassing 16 top top 40 hits, including the No. 1 monster “Celebration.” At the same time, those singles continued to score on the R&B chart as well. They included “Too Hot,” “Take It to the Top,” “Jones vs. Jones,” “Take My Heart,” “Steppin’ Out,” “Get Down on It,” “Big Fun,” “Let’s Go Dancin’,” “Joanna,” “Tonight,” “Fresh,” “Misled,” “Cherish,” “Emergency,” “Victory” and “Stone Love.”

RECORDED DECEMBER 2018

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