Kool & the Gang’s Ronald Bell dies
Singer and composer Ronald Bell, who, along with his brother, founded the iconic R&B group Kool & the Gang, died Tuesday. He was 68.
A publicist for the group, Angelo Ellerbee, confirmed Bell’s death.
Ellerbee said he had no immediate information about the cause or circumstances. Bell was at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands with his wife, Tia Sinclair Bell.
The group behind such classic hits as “Jungle Boogie,” “Get Down On It,” “Cherish” and “Ladies Night” had its roots in Jersey City, with Bell and his big brother Robert, known professionally as “Kool,” there from the very beginning.
It was Ronald, who also went by his Muslim name, Khalis Bayyan, on the ARP synthesizer generating the high-pitched climbing riffs in the instrumental classic “Summer Madness.”
The self-taught musician mastered the saxophone and keyboard instruments, and became the group’s principal composer and arranger on a string of hits, including Kool & the Gang’s first No. 1 record, “Celebration.”
The song got massive radio play in 1980 with DJs cuing it up to celebrated the release of the American hostages and their return from Iran.
Bell’s contributions helped Kool & the Gang earn multiple gold and platinum records with worldwide sales totaling more than 70 million.
The band also earned seven American Music Awards and two Grammy Awards. The Bell brothers were also inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.
“We’re grateful for all we’ve accomplished and the way our audiences have responded to us,” Bell told an interviewer before a performance in 2011. “We realize a lot of groups come and go and we’re still here and still having fun. I think that makes it all worth it.”
Influenced by the music of jazz great John Coltrane, the Bell brothers began playing together in the mid 1960s as the Jazziacs in Jersey City. By the end of the decade, after a few personnel changes, the group became known as Kool & the Gang.
The street they grew up on in Jersey City was renamed “Kool & the Gang” way in their honor: