Cole and co-founder of the Ronald Bale gang is dead at the age of 68

Ronald “sincere” Bill is the singer, songwriter and saxophonist who sang it Cole and the gang He became one of the most famous and highly selective funk groups in the 1970s and beyond, and died Wednesday at his home in the US Virgin Islands at the age of 68, as confirmed by a representative of Rolling rock. The cause of death is unknown.

Over the course of 23 albums, starting in 1969 Cole and the gang Through Christmas Album 2013 Cool HolidaysIn 1979, the band went from a junior jazz unit to a funk band to smooth out the pop Soul with the addition of vocalist James “JT” Taylor in 1979. Bell, who changed the name of Khalis Bian later in his life, co-wrote several of the band. The enduring earworms – including Ladies Night, Jungle Buggy, and Celebration – have become an integral part of the national consciousness.

In 1964 Bell and his teenage brother Robert “Cole” Bell, unable to afford the drums, were collecting old paint cans in Youngstown, Ohio and using them as temporary percussion instruments. It was a crude way of learning music – the brothers would discover different tones depending on the amount of paint in each pack – but it launched a musical career that has lasted more than 50 years.

After moving to Jersey City, New Jersey, the duo set up a shop in front of a subway in Greenwich Village, New York, adding cheap barrels to their paint can collection. “We were making about five dollars in three weeks,” said Ronald Bale. Rolling rock In 2015.

The Bill brothers went on to form the Jazziacs family with high school friends, eventually turning into Kool & the Flames and finally Kool & the Gang. The esteemed funk-pop group has sold over 70 million albums worldwide.

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