The Dance Fever Dispatch Checks In with Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & The Gang
On disco lights your name will be seen
You can fulfill all your dreams
Party here, party there, everywhere
This is your night, baby, you've got to be there
That’s right – Kool & The Gang are gonna party here, party there...everywhere on the Ultimate Disco Cruise! For five disco-ball lit nights they’ll bring the good times and the laughter, too, along with all of their biggest hits; “Celebration,” “Get Down on It,” “Fresh,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Joanna,” “Ladies Night” and the slow jams “Joanna” and “Cherish” will keep those platforms hustling and bellbottoms bumping all week long.
Robert “Kool” Bell and the guys in The Gang put the funky into disco, dominating the dancefloors and the pop charts throughout the grooviest decade ever. And they’ve kept the party going ever since – Kool & The Gang are indisputably one of the greatest live bands on the road today. As soon as that first note comes soaring out of their white-hot horn section, crowds are up on their feet and never sit back down again until it’s time to go home.
“It’s always great,” says Robert as he thinks back on all the concerts they’ve played over the past 50 years. “It’s great camaraderie. We grew up together, touring, and it’s a great vibe.” It’s not just the camaraderie and vibes that brought the band massive success for so long. Although he started with The Gang when he was just 14 years old, Robert quickly learned the tricks of the trade that would serve him well in the disco era and figured out how to turn a young group of musicians into superstars.
Not long after their debut album landed in the Top 40, the band found themselves onstage at the storied Apollo Theater in Harlem. “So we went to the Apollo Theater and performed one night with two other acts and they had singers that danced and they had a whole show,” Bell recalls. “We had a record out but they had a great show and they blew us away, ran us all the way back to New Jersey,” he remembers, laughing. “At that point we said ‘this is show business, we can’t just stand up there and play.’ Now we had to do the Kool & The Gang thing. It was time to get busy. We had to put our show together. A year later we came back to the Apollo and we blew them away,” he says with a slow smile.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for their new show. A movement was sweeping across the nation, driven by soul and funky basslines, dancing and dynamic sounds. And Kool & The Gang boogied their way right up to the front of it. They created a groove that no one could imitate, so powerful that bodies moved to the beat whether they wanted to or not. Jazz and funk and R&B. Horns , percussion, thumping bass and whistles. And the songs. The irresistible hooks and choruses that generations have sung along to. They embraced the flamboyant excess of the day, taking the stage in fine suits, smooth hats and outfits in every color on the birthstone chart.
“’Hollywood Swinging,’ ‘Jungle Boogie’ and ‘Funky Stuff’…that really put us on the map,” Bell says gratefully. “Those songs were powerful for us in the 70s. We went on to have bigger songs and pop crossover songs in the 80s but even today, when we go to the old school during concerts, when we tell folks we’re going to take you back, when we hit ‘Funky Stuff’ and ‘Jungle Boogie’ and ‘Hollywood Swinging,’ the crowd still goes crazy,” he adds.
The lucky ones aboard the Ultimate Disco Cruise will be taking that level of crazy up a notch or ten when Kool & The Gang step onto the stage. But the best part about the cruise is that the party doesn’t stop once the band takes their final bow. They’ll hang out with fans too, showing up at special events, signing autographs and sharing groovy memories.
Let' go where the people go
That's where we want to be.
Dancin' in the disco-light
Shine all over me.
Music playing loud and clear
'Cause that's we, we want to hear.
So let's go where they, disco down
We'll rock and shake our bodies to the ground.
Hangin' out