Forty years ago, the songs of New Jersey’s Kool and the Gang formed an essential soundtrack to many a suburban lothario’s weekend. “Celebration”, “Ladies’ Night” and “Get Down on It” were undisputed chart classics of the time – laying down slick grooves that focused wholly on having a good time and not having a care in the world.
James “JT” Taylor, lead singer during the band’s commercial peak, may be long gone but bassist, Robert “Kool” Bell and keyboard player, George “Funky” Brown (all the original band members seem to be obliged to have a one-word nickname) are still very much on board for album number 34, People Just Wanna Have Fun. In fact, given how long it took to put the album together, original horn players Ronald “Khalis” Bell and Dennis “DT” Thomas were also able to make their own contributions, despite shuffling off this mortal coil in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
With JT gone, vocals on People Just Wanna Have Fun are performed by a host of R’n’B singers, including Sha Sha Jones, Shawn McQuiller and Lavell Evans, who bring a rainbow of colours to the Gang’s contemporary sound. “VIP” has a sniff of Prince about it, while “We Are the Party” sounds like a Bootsy Collins knock-off. “My Weakness” comes on like a Nineties US boyband and the autotuned “Let’s Party” could have been used as backing music for a party scene in an early episode of Miami Vice.
Penultimate track “99 Miles to JC” is something altogether different though. Slick but laidback jazz funk grooves are brought to the fore with some serious trumpet soloing from Michael Ray – who seemingly manages to avoid the obligatory nickname, perhaps because he brings some undisputed jazz chops to the group through his other band, the Cosmic Krewe, and his contributions to Marshall Allen’s Sun Ra Archestra. It’s just a pity that he wasn’t given more of a free rein throughout the rest of this disc.
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