UPDATE: The Kool & the Gang concert scheduled for New Year's Eve has been postponed until summer 2018. A message on the Innsbrook After Hours website states, "Based on the unprecedented cold weather expected this weekend and out of concern for the safety and well-being of our fans in such harsh temperatures on New Year’s Eve, Innsbrook and the band have made the decision to move the show into our Summer 2018 season." Tickets for the New Year's Eve concert will be honored at the rescheduled summer show.
Robert "Kool" Bell, right, and fellow members of Kool & the Gang (Photo courtesy Kool & the Gang)
“Everything is Kool & the Gang.” You might be old enough to remember that phrase, spoken among the hip to convey that everything’s all right, okay and fine. But there was a time when it could almost be taken literally, because just about everything on the radio and television was Kool & the Gang, the R&B band whose early '80s hits (“Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Joanna”) became radio staples and dance-floor fillers. Robert “Kool” Bell, 67, still leads the band he founded with his brother in the 1960s. The current group, which includes four original members, will perform at Innsbrook on New Year’s Eve. In a chat from his home in Orlando, the bassist talks about the old days, new projects and what he thought of Richmond native D’Angelo’s extended sample of their song.
Richmond magazine: Did you ever get tired of playing 'Celebration'? That song was everywhere in the ’80s.
Robert Bell: Yeah, you’re right. But we never got tired of it, though, because that was our closer number. We could not close the show if we did not do 'Celebration'; they’d run us out of there. 'Celebration' is something we always have to do, even up to today. We have fun with it. My son, he’s a rapper and producer, he goes by the name Price Akeem, he comes out and [does] a little rap on 'Celebration.' We keep it fresh. No pun [intended]. [Laughs]
RM: Tell me about your hit 'Jungle Boogie.'
RB: 'Jungle Boogie.' Well, It goes back about ’73, I guess. At that time we were still with [the Delite record label], they came to us and said, 'Hey you guys haven’t had any major hits.' And there was this hit out called 'Soul Makoosa.' … The producer of that record met with our record company, and our record company called and they said, 'Listen, we want you to work with this guy. We want him to produce your next record.' So we met with him, and we weren’t feeling where he was coming from or what he wanted us to do. So we went into the studio one morning, downtown New York, in the village, a studio called Baggies. We went to Baggies at about 8 o’clock in the morning, we worked out and we just were groovin’ all day. By the time we finished, we had created 'Hollywood Swingin’,' 'Jungle Boogie' and 'Funky Stuff.' Needless to say, the record company did not come to us again about what we doing. They left us alone.
RM: Later on, you did find a producer you could work with. Can you talk about working with Eumir Dedato?
RB: Let me go back a while. We were on tour with the Jackson 5 at the time, and the tour was finishing. A guy by the name of Dick Griffey, [a producer and founder of Solar Records], he came to us and he said, 'Listen, man, you guys are doing great on the tour, but there’s one thing I think is missin’. … You guys gotta get a lead singer.' So … we thought about it, we should try to do that. We didn’t even audition. Over at the studio … that we worked at, a place called the House of Music in West Orange, New Jersey, in that studio Eumir Deodato was working on his new album. Also, the owners of that studio, knew a guy by the name of James 'J.T.' Taylor, from Hackensack, that had a group called Fillet of Soul. They said, 'You guys should give this guy a shot.' And we did. And Eumir Deodato was the one who did the project.
RM: Deodato was known for a jazz sound; his solo records don’t sound like Kool & the Gang music. How did that new sound come about?
RB: It was something he brought out of us. We thought that getting Deodato, he would take us in that [jazz] direction also, because of his background, but he said, 'No, we gotta go in this direction.' Now, 'Ladies Night,' my wife and I, we were hangin’ out in New York; every Friday night, Saturday night there was a Ladies Night. Studio 54, at Régine's in New York. I went back to the guys and I said, 'Hey, man, every weekend there’s a Ladies Night, we should write a song called "Ladies Night." ' That was our first big hit with Deodato. Same thing with 'Celebration.' There was a full orchestra on that record. Deodato had a full orchestra come in and play on 'Celebration.' And at the end of record, all of that went off, and all you had was the guitar in the front, which is signature now. I said, 'What happened to all the music?' He said, 'That’s not the hit. This is the hit.'
RM: What did you think of D’Angelo’s remake of your instrumental 'Sea of Tranquility'?
RB: He did a good job. He did the whole track, made a song over it. Yeah. We do a little small part of his version [in live shows]. He’s a great musician.
RM: Anything else you’d like to add?
RB: A couple of things we’re working on for 2018 and ’19: One will be a documentary, that we’ve been shooting for year; the second one is we’re talking to some people that are interested in doing a musical with us, either in Vegas or Broadway, the working title right now is 'It’s a Celebration.'
RM: It seems that, from what I know of your story, it’s not the usual narrative of famous musicians who struggle with personal problems.
RB: We had our ups and downs, too. When J.T. [former lead singer J.T. Taylor] left the band, we were ridin’ high, people said, 'What are they gonna do now? They lost their lead singer.' They thought J.T. would go on to be Lionel Richie or Michael Jackson.
RM: That didn’t work out.
RB: But what that allowed us to do was expand our market. We [started] playing … behind the Iron Curtain, East Berlin, we were in Pakistan, places that wouldn’t normally go with J.T. We just started building our fan base during that time, people thought we were all washed up. We had our little ups and downs, too. It will be in the book. [Laughs]
Kool & the Gang's New Year's Eve show at Innsbrook starts at 7 p.m. $30 to $49. VIP dinner and hospitality packages $59 to $175. 804-562-0489 or innsbrookafterhours.com
