Jersey funk legends Kool and the Gang 'blessed' to play Sea Hear Now at Jersey Shore
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are not the only New Jersey group in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame playing the Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park this weekend.
Kool and the Gang are also on the bill. The Jersey City funk legends are scheduled to take the Surf Stage at 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15.
“We just love to do the thing and do it with all the party and funk and fun and joy,” said band keyboardist and music director Curtis Williams.
Kool and the Gang were fonuded in 1964 by brothers Ronald Bell and Robert “Kool” Bell, with neighborhood friends Robert “Spike” Mickens, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, Ricky Westfield, George Brown and Charles Smith.
There have been two primary phases of Kool & the Gang’s career: They were the funk superstars of the 1970s who pumped out hits like “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging,” and the suave R&B popsters fronted by former lead singer James “J.T.” Taylor who rolled out Top 10 smashes such as “Celebration,” “Ladies Night,” “Too Hot,” “Joanna” and “Cherish.”
Williams, a family friend from Buffalo, joined in 1981 when he was 18.
“The guys are iconic genius-level minds on all the styles,” Williams said. “They're heavily influenced by jazz, but they incorporate that into funk, hip-hop — and there's a depth of music that even if some of it takes a pop approach, there’s still a depth there. ... Growing up with these ambassadors of music was incredible.”
More: Sea Hear Now boat cruises ready to rock for Bruce Springsteen on Asbury Park beach
The band recently lost some family members. Ronald Bell, aka Khalis Bayyan, passed away in 2020; Thomas in 2021; and Brown, the band's original drummer and pivotal songwriter, passed way last year. A posthumous album from Brown, “Where I’m Coming From,' will be released Friday, Sept. 13.
The album's jazzy rhythms are warming, the melodies caress, and the musically is expansive without losing its earthly texture.
Williams, who appears on the album, and Brown developed a friendship right from beginning.
“They would pick me up and then pick up George and we’d pull into this beautiful complex and I'd say, 'Gee, this is nice,' ” said Williams of Brown's former pad in the Galaxy Towers of Guttenburg, just outside of Manhattan. “I never thought I would live there but that’s the thing — he and I would ride so often, and we just talked about life and all kinds of stuff. His mind was so broad.”
Williams eventually moved into the towers.
“They had three towers,” Williams said. “George was way up in the 40s; our guitarist, Kool's brother, Amir Bayyan, lived there, too. I was only on the ninth floor. I didn’t move my way up to the penthouse floors.”
Sea Hear Now begins Saturday, Sept. 14. Springsteen and the E Street Band also play on Sunday, Sept. 15. Other performers include Noah Kahan, the Gaslight Anthem, the Trey Anastasio Band, the Black Crowes, Norah Jones, 311, the Revivalists, the Hives and more on the fest’s three stages on the North Beach and in Bradley Park.
Kool and the Gang, still led by Kool, will be inducted into the Rock Hall on Saturday, Oct 19, at the Rocket Mortage FieldHouse in Cleveland. Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest are joining them.
In Asbury Park, DJ Prince Hakim, aka Kool's son, will be joining the band for “Jungle Boogie.”
“It’s joyful for us and we’re so blessed to be able to travel the world and even get to the Jersey Shore and just share the different avenues of music Kool and the Gang have,” Williams said. “A combination of funk, jazz, pop, rock and we bring it all — and we bring it with love and joy.”
Go: Sea Hear Now, noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, and 11:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15, North Beach and Bradley Park, 1300 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park, sold out; seahearnow.com.
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@app.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Kool and the Gang play Sea Hear Now, Asbury Park, NJ funk legends
