Post by Blaque on Jun 23, 2006 10:33:15 GMT -5
Charles Smith, 57, Guitarist for Kool and the Gang
BY STEPHEN MILLER - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 23, 2006
Charles Smith, who died Tuesday at 57 in Maplewood, N.J.,
was the guitarist for Kool and the Gang for more than 35
years, from its beginning as a high school band called the
Jazziacs to the 1980s when it released chart-topping hits
like "Celebration."
As recently as last January, Smith toured with the band,
which is one of the longest-running acts in popular music.
In addition to "Celebration" (1980) Kool and the Gang scored
hits with "Jungle Boogie" (1974), "Ladies Night"
(1979),"Take My Heart" (1981), and "Joanna" (1983), the
latter two written by Smith.
Smith, and the six other original members of the band,grew
up in Jersey City. Jazz was the music they grew up with, and
when Smith joined Robert "Kool" Bell and his brother Ronald,
who played bass and saxophone, in 1966, they formed a jazz
ensemble. As they began to get work backing up singers
sporting the Motown sound, the band changed its name to the
Soul Town Band and the Soul Train Review. Their penultimate
moniker was Kool and the Flames, which a record executive
apparently modified when the band was first signed, in 1968,
to prevent confusion with James Brown's Famous Flames.
Kool and the Gang was an instrumental funk band that sported
a fat bass groove under jazzy guitar playing, as typified by
"Jungle Boogie," its first big hit. It was raw funk, a much
wilder sound than the polished disco- and R&B-influenced pop
that would become the stuff of their 1980s hits.
The Bell brothers joined the Nation of Islam in the early
1970s, changing their names to Ronald Five X and Robert Nine
X, known on record sleeves as Khalis and Muhammed Bayyan;
Smith modified his name as well, changing his given name
Claydes to Charles, apparently to avoid drawing attention to
himself on lists of credits.
In 1979, Kool and the Gang retooled, hiring a proper lead
vocalist and big-name producers. The result was a string of
hits, including "Ladies Night" and "Celebration," a song
that achieved a worldwide popularity far out of proportion
to anything else the band recorded.
Aside from minor personnel changes, Kool and the Gang's
lineup remained fairly constant over the decades. While hits
became scarce after the mid-1980s, the band continued to
tour and experienced something of a revival when hip-hop
artists began to sample its grooves extensively. In recent
years, still touring, the band found its most enthusiastic
customers to be corporate functions and casinos.
Claydes Charles Smith
Born September 6, 1948, in Jersey City, N.J.; died June 20
after a long illness in Maplewood, N.J.; survived by six
children, Claydes Smith, Justin Smith, Aaron Corbin, August
Williams, Uranus Guray, Tyteen Humes, and nine
grandchildren.