It will be a Kool party on (almost) the Fourth

Generations of Bells have made key contributions to music. That includes:
— Robert “Kool” Bell, leader of Kool & The Gang, which performs Friday (July 3) on the Capitol Lawn. That’s in a party (8 p.m. on most PBS station, plus YouTube and more) that has fireworks and music, from Alan Jackson to Chicago to Kool’s “Celebration” — an essential song for any 250th-birthday party.
— His dad, Robert “Bobby” Bell. His contribution was to not hit Miles Davis.
Really. “My father was a boxer,” Bell said,. “Miles Davis wanted to box with him, but he wouldn’t do it. He said, ‘I don’t want to ruin your career.'”
So Davis, his jaw and lips intact, continued to be a great jazz trumpeter. His music became one influence for Kool’s gang.
There have been many influences, from jazz to rock to funk and Motown. They’re all part of “Celebration,” which was a No. 1 hit in 1980 and has been a key to many parties ever since. Bell recited a few: “The Seahawks, the Knicks … the return of the (Iran) hostages, the space station …”
And now the 250th birthday of the United States — or the day before.
At 8 p.m. Saturday, 4th-of-July parties will sprawl across ABC, NBC, CBS, their streaming networks and more. PBS will have a special event from Colonial Williamsburg, complete with fifes, drums, dancers and actors.
That nudged “A Capitol Fourth” out of its usual night. Instead, it will be on many — but not all — PBS stations at 8 p.m. on the Third, repeating at 9:30. (It streams on YouTube and at pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth and will also be at video-on-demand through July 17.) The fireworks will be from Mount Vernon, but the music will be on the Capitol Lawn, as usual.
That will includes lots of country (Trace Adkins, Carly Pearce and, from Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Alan Jackson), plus opera star Angel Blue, “Greatest Showman” soprano Loren Allred, the cast of Broadway’s “Just in Time” and rock — with Patti LaBelle, Chicago and Kool’s gang.
That’s in a much-traveled life. Bell was a self-described “country kid” in Youngstown, Ohio, when his family moved to Jersey City, NJ. “We were like the Beverly Hillbillies,” he said. “Everything we owned was in that trailer.”
It was an imposing change for a 10-year-old. When his mother sent him to the store with a quarter, two youths demanded the money, which he gave them. “I had to learn the ways.”
He did. The name “Kool,” he’s said, came from being “kind of laidback.”
That worked well in high school, where he had friends and a girlfriend. He met her when he was 15 and they married five years later; they were married for 47 years, until her death in 2018.
And Jersey City had a strong music program. Bell tried the violin, cello and mellophone, rejected them all, and then found the bass.
His friends also found their grooves. In 1964, when he was 13, they became the Jazziacs.
Yes, jazz, which was vibrant nearby. Thelonious Monk lived in the same apartment building as Bell’s dad; Davis and others stopped by. Ronald Bell (Robert’s younger brother) was a huge fan of John Coltrane and others.
So it shouldn’t surprise us that the kids’ first gigs were at a theater’s jazz night. They soon played at the Blue Note Lounge and their first album (1969, when Bell was 18) was instrumental.
Along the way, they had other influences and names. They were the Soul Town Band (“we learned a lot of Motown songs”), then Kool & the F.lames, then Kool & The Gang. Instrumental riffs were big; the band didn’t add a designated vocalist until 1979.
Even before that, it hit No. 4 and 6 on the pop charts with “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging.” With “J.T.” Taylor as the new singer, it soon had “Ladies Night” at No. 13 and then “Celebration” at No. 1; all four songs are expected to be in a medley Friday.
At 75, Robert Bell is the only survivor from the original seven. His brother (who died in 2020 at 68) was the principal writer for “Celebration” and many other songs, he said.
It might have seemed easy to dismiss Kool’s gang as part of the disco/party 1980s. Gradually, recognition came for the group and its musicianship; in 2024, in was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“We had been waiting to get in for a while,” Bell said. After all, “we did 38 shows with Van Halen. We did shows with Elton John, Dave Mathews …. That’s rock.”
And now Kool is a certified rock stars, ready for fun. On Friday — the 57th anniversary of that first album — they’ll be on the Capitol lawn. On Saturday — the 250th birthday of a nation — they’ll be at an Air Force base in Warner Robins, Ga. They’ll be ready for a celebration.