There is a non-zero chance you've never been to a wedding, high school dance, or New Years party without hearing the original party anthem, Kool and the Gang’s 1980 classic “Celebration.” And even if you were homeschooled by a lighthouse keeper, you can probably hum a few bars of “Get Down On It.” Kool and the Gang taught America to boogie and the lesson sunk in.
Later this week, Kool and the Gang will receive the Legend Award (which recognizes individuals for their outstanding achievements and contribution to soul music) at the 2014 Soul Train Awards in Las Vegas. The show will be broadcast later this month, all in a lead-up to 2015 when the group will be inducted in the the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Those are meaningful achievements but they’re considerably less impressive than the band’s ultimate accomplishment: keeping the Gang together for fifty years.
Kool had a few minutes to answer some questions about a half century of Gang history, getting started just across the river from New York, and what it’s like to have written the most iconic victory tune of all time.
You guys have been through a lot of musical phases over your half century together. What are a couple of the pivotal changes that stick out? What brought you from jazz to what we know today?
When we started playing in the sixties, jazz was our first love. We eventually got hired by a Motown type revue show in Jersey City called the Soul Town Revue. Basically they paid and we needed to make money. They were looking for a band to play behind singers who were doing covers of all the popular artists at the time. We had to learn all the Motown songs, Stax Records songs and of course all of James Brown’s songs. This is how we learned to play soul and R&B. We were the Soul Town Band for the Soul Town Revue.
When we got our first record deal, we merged some of that muscle we had gained by all those gigs with the Soul Town Revue with our jazz roots and come up with our own sound. Our first single hit the charts. It was a song called “Kool& the Gang”. The single was “Kool& The Gang” and the album was “Kool& The Gang” and that really defined us, taking our love for playing jazz, R&B and soul and making it the Kool& the Gang sound.
After ten years music was changing and to stay in the game we had to get a lead singer. JT joined the group as lead singer and we made the most of it.
What was it like coming up in Jersey City?
There was a slight afro-jazz movement back in Jersey City in early sixties. They had Jazzmobiles back then. Jazzmobiles were concerts on a mobile stage. They played in Arlington Park and Lafayette Park. Some of musicians that came thru on those mobile stages were McCoy Tyner, Gary Bartz and Freddie Waits.
We opened up for McCoy Tyner at St Peters College in Jersey City. We were about 15, 16, 17 years old at the time.
That's amazing, but you had to be looking across the water toward New York City.
The big advantage to living in Jersey City was our close proximity to Manhattan. We played in front of the 9th Street subway and then moved to the CaféWha?. They had hootenannies, kind of like an open mic and we played for sandwiches. We were so young at the time maybe 14, 15, 16 years old. After all the armatures played the big talent would come on like Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Richie Havens. The village was a learning ground for us professionally.
They’re still not tired of playing ‘Celebration.'