Kool and Gang, Jazz Greats on Tap

For more than two decades, Kool and the Gang have guarded their musical turf as zealously as any inner-city street gang. Their funky, rhythm-and-blues dance music anticipated disco, suffered under it, and eventually overcame it.

With such early 1970s hits as “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging,” the Jersey City group introduced the choppy, horn-driven rhythms and chunky guitar fills that would later form the basis of the disco sound.

Ironically, by the latter part of the decade Kool and the Gang had been shoved aside by the same hard-core disco groups they had inspired. They had the beat, to be sure, but they also had melody, harmony and, most significantly, style --three qualities for which disco had no use.

When the disco fad faded, however, Kool and the Gang not only regained their grip on the pop charts, they tightened it. The group’s 1980 hit, “Celebration,” peaked at No. 1 and later became the theme for the return of the U.S. hostages from Iran.

Since then, Kool and the Gang have scored no fewer than a dozen Top 40 smashes, ranging from such sweltering dance tunes as “Get Down on It” in 1982 to ballads like 1985’s “Cherish.”

Kool and the Gang will be at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island Thursday night as part of the 1,000-seat outdoor venue’s seventh annual “Concerts by the Bay” series. There will be two shows, starting at 7 and 9 p.m.

Four of the biggest names in contemporary jazz will be at Sea World’s Nautilus Amphitheater Saturday to help local radio station KIFM-FM (98.1) celebrate the sixth anniversary of its immensely successful “Lites Out Jazz” program.

Performing will be saxophonist George Howard, guitarist Al DiMeola, pianist Ramsey Lewis and flutist Herbie Mann with the Jasil Brazz.

Howard, a native of Philadelphia, has just released his second solo album of instrumental pop-jazz, “Reflections,” for MCA Records. The classically trained musician learned woodwinds from Shirley Curtis of the Philadelphia Orchestra and, by the time he was 15, was already touring the country with such notable rhythm-and-blues groups as Blue Magic, First Choice, and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.

In 1979, Howard began a long association with soulful tenor saxist Grover Washington Jr. In the two years he’s been on his own, he has all but exceeded his former mentor’s commercial success, with more than a little help from such respected sidemen as bassist Freddie Washington and guitarist Paul Jackson Jr.

Al DiMeola first rose to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever. Since the pioneering jazz-fusion group disbanded in 1976, DiMeola has established himself as one of contemporary jazz’s most talented guitar virtuosos, both as a solo artist and through temporary liaisons with fellow guitarist John McLaughlin (of the Mahavishnu Orchestra) and Brazilian percussionist Airto Moriera.

Herbie Mann helped orchestrate the original “bossa nova” craze of the late 1950s and early ‘60s, which fused American jazz with Brazilian rhythms and melodies. Today, he’s on the front lines of the bossa nova revival, and his current back-up group, Jasil Brazz, consists of both American and Brazilian jazz players.

In the 1960s, Ramsey Lewis became one of the first jazz artists to cross over onto the pop charts with “The ‘In’ Crowd,” which won a Grammy in 1965 for Best Jazz Instrumental. Since then, the pianist has performed with symphony orchestras, pop singers Stevie Wonder and Maurice White (of Earth, Wind and Fire), and a litany of jazz greats.

The concert starts at 6 p.m., an hour after the gates open.