Ronald “Khalis” Bell, co-founder of legendary funk-soul band Kool & The Gang and co-writer of classic jams “Ladies’ Night,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Celebration,” has died. He was 68. From Rolling Stone:
In 1964, Bell and his teenage brother Robert “Kool” Bell, unable to afford drums, would collect old paint cans in their Youngstown, Ohio neighborhood and use them as makeshift percussion instruments. It was a crude way to learn music — the brothers would figure out different tones depending on how much paint was in each can — but it launched a musical career that lasted more than 50 years[…]
Bell remained humble as he looked back on his legacy, insisting that his indispensable contributions were part of a greater whole. “A lot of the songs, I may have spearheaded ’em,” Bell told The New Yorker in 2018. “But it’s really, with a ‘K,’ the [collective] genius of a band called Kool & the Gang.”
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