The call to their management in July was unexpected. The American funk group Kool & the Gang were in the middle of a world tour in Morocco when they received an invitation to travel to Dubai a few weeks later for a television performance.
“This just happened, so I don’t know really too much,” said Bell, backstage at the Mawazine Festival in Morocco during the summer. “We plan to come to Dubai for 48 hours and record a song with one of the Arab world’s top singers. I think the show is produced by Coca-Cola.”
As it turned out, the request came from the producers of the MBC 4 music series Coke Studio Middle East and the mystery Arab singer was revealed last week to be none other than the Syrian diva, Assala.
While such last-minute requests might unnerve some artists, Bell said the members of his group take it all in their stride.
“We are always touring and playing, so it doesn’t matter to us,” he said. “We are happy to play anywhere and have a good time.”
Kool & the Gang are known for their many killer hits through the years, including Fresh and Cherish. Considering that you have been touring consistently for 50 years, is it a challenge to maintain the enthusiasm on stage?
It does become a challenge because you have to know which songs to add and which songs to take out. We can get bored playing the same thing, but at the same-time people want to hear what they want to hear – songs such as Fresh and Jungle Boogie. The challenge is to play with the song a bit, but not to take it too far from its original style.
The band are known for their eclectic styles incorporating funk, rock and soul. Are these elements inspired by different band members?
We travel so much that we marry a lot of different cultures into our music. Our music is not just funk, it has pop, rock, country and a lot of other things. For example, one of our songs, Open Sesame [the title track from the 1976 album], has some musical scales synonymous with music from the Arab region.
How did you manage to stay together for 50 years without any major dramas?
Our parents told me and [the saxophonist and co-songwriter] Ronald [Bell] to always stick together and be there for each other. For every problem there is a solution. We have arguments, but we work it out with love and understanding.
Finally, when will you return to the UAE for a proper tour?
There is a lot of energy from the crowd when we are in the Gulf. And that’s getting more each time we come back. When we played in Abu Dhabi about 15 years ago, it was kind of quiet. They knew the songs, of course, but they just sat there listening and being all conservative. The world has changed now and we plan to come back next year to Abu Dhabi and the UAE because it has been awhile.
Coke Studio Middle East returns on Fridays at 9pm on MBC4. For details go to www.mbc.net
sasaeed@thenational.ae
