Robert Bell Visited the Rock Hall to Talk About Kool & The Gang’s Legacy Ahead of Inductions

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2024 induction festivities kicked off last night with an interview with the last surviving original member of Kool & The Gang. Robert “Kool” Bell, bass player of the legendary R&B outfit, sat down with Jason Hanley, the Hall’s VP of Education, for a 90-minute discussion at the Rock Hall’s Foster Theater about the formation of the seminal multi-Grammy winning band that will be inducted Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage Field House with the Class of 2024.

Bell, a native of Youngstown, grew up in Jersey City, NJ, and founded the band with six of his closest friends. Originally called “Kool and the Flames,” they changed the name so as not to be confused with James Browns’ group, The Famous Flames.

They brainstormed for a new moniker and, somehow, Kool & The Gang became the one choice that everyone could agree upon.

As young men growing up on the outskirts of Manhattan, Bell said that they were all influenced by the jazz giants of the day: Art Tatum, Charles Mingus and especially John Coltrane.

The nascent group was primarily a jazz outfit; signed to De-Lite Records their first album (and single) were both named “Kool & The Gang.” Achieving some initial success due to mafia help, Bell said that “they were ignorant” to how their tunes started getting local airplay but said that the local Don helped the record label get their music on the NYC airwaves.

As time went on, the group was known fundamentally as a jazz/funk fusion outfit that built their success on instrumental compositions and a kick-ass horn section that really carved out the band’s unique sound.

In 1978, their tune “Open Sesame” appeared on the 20-million-selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Bell said that the movie and album’s success changed the direction of their lives and brought a whole new audience to their music.

Embracing the disco fad, Kool & The Gang became known as a dance band; record sales soared and their new audience loved tunes like “Celebration and “Ladies Night.”

As Disco started to wane, they decided to do something they’d never considered: adding a lead singer to the lineup. Bell said that their “lead singer,” the horn section, had to “move over” to make room for James “J.T.” Taylor, who would lead the group into another direction. Songs were rearranged to de-emphasize that eponymous horn sound, giving Taylor’s vocals some room to breathe.

At that point, the band entered its most successful phase in late 1979, with tunes like “Get Down On It,” and the wedding reception standard “Cherish.”

When hip hop groups started to “sample” music from other artists in creating their own music, Bell was shocked to learn that his band was “sampled” more than any other artist, over 1800 times. Bell said “sampling” was really stealing, and at one point considered adding a “sample patrol,” someone whose sole job was to search for bass lines and horn passages that had been lifted from Kool & The Gang’s music without permission.

He did say, however, that “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, brought attention to their music and introduced younger folks to “older,” established music. When Hanley said that “Summertime” sampled the 1974 “Summer Madness,” Bell interjected that they took the entire song, verbatim, and merely rapped over it.

Bell lamented the fact that of all the original members, he’s the only one still with us. His brother and co-founder Ronald passed away in 2020. Dennis Thomas passed in 2021, while the other members have passed in recent years as well.

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