Bell was a clear jazzman, playing with his brother from Jazziacs, Kool & the Flames, The Jazz Birds and finally Kool & the Gang from school. In the 1960s, he also played on the street, in the subway or in the park and could barely make a living.
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With the band, they released their debut Kool and the Gang in 1969, and the jazz band gradually became a world-famous funk band, which is considered one of the symbols of the entire 1970s. That’s when they became more interested in synthesizers and funk under the influence of superstars like James Brown and Herbie Hancock.
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Kool and the Gang
Photo: Profimedia.cz
In 1973, they released the modern-sounding soul-funk album Wild and Peaceful, and became famous with the hits Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging and Jungle Boogie. The last of these songs experienced paradoxically the greatest fame in the 1990s, as Quentin Tarantino put her in the film Pulp Fiction alongside other legendary songs (Let’s Stay Together, Son of a Preacher Man). The new generation of listeners, who did not even know the group, immediately fell in love with retro funk.
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Fame for Kool & the Gang continued in the 1970s and 1980s with classics such as Light of the Worlds (1974), Spirit of the Boogie (1975) and Open Sesame (1976). Board Celebrate! and especially the notorious hit Celebration is still played today.
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