Kool and the Gang co-founder Ronald Bell, who co-wrote many of the group's biggest hits including “Ladies Night,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Celebration,' has died at age 68
Kool and the Gang, the band morphed from upstart jazz unit to leading funk ensemble to smooth pop-soul group with the addition of vocalist James “J.T.” Taylor in 1979. Bell, who adapted the name Khalis Bayyaan later in life, co-wrote many of the group’s perpetual life-event earworms — including “Ladies Night,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Celebration” — that have become embedded into the national consciousness.
In 1964, Bell and his teenage brother Robert “Kool” Bell, unable to afford drums, would collect old paint cans in their Youngstown, Ohio neighborhood and use them as makeshift percussion instruments. It was a crude way to learn music — the brothers would figure out different tones depending on how much paint was in each can — but it launched a musical career that lasted more than 50 years.
After moving to Jersey City, New Jersey, the duo set up shop in front of the subway in New York’s Greenwich Village, adding cheap drums to their paint-can ensemble. “We’d make about five dollars in three weeks,” Ronald Bell toldThe Bell brothers went on to form the Jazziacs with high school friends, eventually transforming into Kool & the Flames and, finally, Kool & the Gang. The revered funk-pop group has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide.
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