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Ronald Bell of Kool and the Gang dies at 68

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Agence France-Presse

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style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><p style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Nc1oAFmkb/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by Kool &amp; the Gang (@koolandthegang)</a> on <time dateTime="2019-10-04T20:45:02+00:00" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px">Oct 4, 2019 at 1:45pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><script async="" src="http://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script><p>NEW YORK -- Ronald Bell -- a co-founder of Kool and the Gang, the heavyweight funk group behind hits like &quot;Celebration,&quot; &quot;Jungle Boogie&quot; and &quot;Ladies&#x27; Night&quot; -- died Wednesday. He was 68 years old.</p><p>The performer died at his home in the US Virgin Islands, the group&#x27;s publicist Angelo Ellerbee told AFP, without specifying a cause of death.</p><p>Bell founded Kool and the Gang with his brother Robert and friends Dennis Thomas, Robert Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown and Ricky West in the early 1960s, fusing a foundation of jazz with smatterings of funk, disco, R&amp;B and pop.</p><p>The group became a major smash in the 1970s, its brassy funk putting it in a class with Earth, Wind and Fire, the Isley Brothers and Sly and the Family Stone. </p><p>Kool and the Gang scored a Grammy in 1978 for their contributions to the soundtrack for &quot;Saturday Night Fever&quot; starring John Travolta.</p><p>The group was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.</p><p>Born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1951, Bell also went by his Muslim name Khalis Bayyan. </p><p>A self-taught musician, he wrote some of the ensemble&#x27;s major hits including &quot;Celebration,&quot; which is still a popular anthem at sporting events.</p><p>The group remains a DJ favorite and is heavily sampled especially in the rap world, its tracks appearing in songs by artists including Jay-Z, Nas, NWA, Tupac, The Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Ronald Bell -- a co-founder of Kool and the Gang, the heavyweight funk group behind hits like "Celebration," "Jungle Boogie" and "Ladies' Night" -- died Wednesday. He was 68 years old.<br /> </p>

Ronald Bell -- a co-founder of Kool and the Gang, the heavyweight funk group behind hits like "Celebration," "Jungle Boogie" and "Ladies' Night" -- died Wednesday. He was 68 years old.