Kool & the Gang original members plan a ‘Celebration’ in Costa Mesa

By Michael Rydzynski

July 17, 2018 4:30 PM PT

Kool & the Gang, one of America’s leading jazz/soul/funk groups, arrives at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa on Wednesday fresh from its latest honor: Four members were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 14.

Not bad for a group that started 54 years ago as an all-instrumental, straight-ahead jazz septet variously called the Jazziacs and Jazz Birds.

“It’s a true honor, being invited to join the hall with all those great songwriters,” said Ronald Bell, who was inducted along with his older brother, bass guitarist Robert “Kool” Bell, percussionist George Brown and vocalist J.T. Taylor, who was with the band from 1979 to 1988 and 1995 to ’99.

“All the rest of our awards are wonderful too,” Bell said during an interview, alluding to the group’s two Grammys, 31 gold and platinum albums, seven American Music Awards, Black Entertainment Television (BET) Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “But this is more than a trophy, it’s one of the highest achievements a songwriter could get. That, to me, is the intellectual side, the flower we planted years ago that blossomed some 30 to 40 years later, all the while supporting it, enjoying it, loving it. This honor is something that will last forever.”

The band will showcase Kool classics such as “Summer Madness,” “Hollywood Swinging” (“Roll Bounce”), the platinum-selling “Jungle Boogie,” “Open Sesame” from “Saturday Night Fever” and “Celebration.”

In 1964, the Bell brothers, Brown, alto saxophonist Dennis “D.T.” Thomas — all still with the group — and three others formed the band that would become Kool & the Gang by 1969 (its official “birth”). Ronald Bell is proud that four charter members are still with the group.

“The only reason the seven of us are not together is, we all gotta go sometime,” Bell said, referring to the three who are deceased. “But we’re still together — they’re here in spirit with us.”

Bell, now 66, was barely a teenager and learning to play tenor saxophone when the group formed.

“My mother made me play in front of her friends when I was younger,” he said with a laugh. “Then in the eighth grade, I played ‘Misty’ and ‘The Sound of Music’ and all the girls (in the audience) screamed. So I thought maybe I could do this. I can’t do anything else, but I can do this.”

In addition to songwriting and saxophone, Bell is arranger, producer, vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, drummer — and “visionary,” he quipped, adding: “I’ll take all of that. I’ve been blessed.”

Working on “Legacy” (the tentative title), a boxed set of CDs covering 50 years of Kool & the Gang to be released next year (the group’s official 50th anniversary); a theatrical film; a documentary; and a TV animation series — this group is not hurting for work.

“We’ve had two decades of success,” Bell said. “After the first decade, we took the commercial way for a while. Still, we kept evolving. Besides, I don’t know how to go back and make another ‘Jungle Boogie.’ We have to move forward, we have to keep evolving. That’s because jazz is a totally creative, spontaneous improvisation.”

Bell promises all the genres fans expect of their Kool band.

“We always have our jazz roots,” he said. “Take R&B, Motown, Soultown, funk, some country and fuse all that with a lot of pop. All music is good. But we have to keep evolving. It’s all about keeping your ear to the street and staying young at heart.”