taken on March 01, 2018, Ronald Bell, founding member from the funk
band Kool and the Gang, answers questions during an interview in
New York. – Bell died on September 9, 2020. He was 68 years old.
The performer died at his home in the US Virgin Islands, the
group’s publicist Angelo Ellerbee told AFP, without specifying a
cause of death. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)
Ronald Bell — a co-founder of Kool and the Gang, the
heavyweight funk group behind hits like “Celebration,” “Jungle
Boogie” and “Ladies’ Night” — died Wednesday. He was 68 years
old.
The performer died at his home in the US Virgin Islands, the
group’s publicist Angelo Ellerbee told AFP, without specifying a
cause of death.
Bell founded Kool and the Gang with his brother Robert and
friends Dennis Thomas, Robert Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown
and Ricky West in the early 1960s, fusing a foundation of jazz with
smatterings of funk, disco, R&B and pop.
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The group became a major smash in the 1970s, its brassy funk
putting it in a class with Earth, Wind and Fire, the Isley Brothers
and Sly and the Family Stone.
Kool and the Gang scored a Grammy in 1978 for their
contributions to the soundtrack for “Saturday Night Fever” starring
John Travolta.
The group was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in
2018.
Born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1951, Bell also went by his Muslim
name Khalis Bayyan.
A self-taught musician, he wrote some of the ensemble’s major
hits including “Celebration,” which is still a popular anthem at
sporting events.
The group remains a DJ favorite and is heavily sampled
especially in the rap world, its tracks appearing in songs by
artists including Jay-Z, Nas, NWA, Tupac, The Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop
Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes.
AFP
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