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Are Kool and the Gang live records REALLY live?


Trumpet Guy

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Are Kool and the Gang's "Live At The Sex Machine" or "Live At PJ's"--really live records or overdubbed applause?? Enquiring minds wanna' know!

Funny how these records are soul jazz instrumentals...Good stuff! Who knew?

Been awhile since I listened but isn't it Sex Machine that has basically the same 10 second loop of audience noise running through it?

Early Kool was... well, cool. And then came Ladies Night......

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Their first album, virtually all instrumentals, is great testimony to the jazzy, soulful dance music of the period.

koolthegang_koolthega_101b.jpg

Hi Tom--Yeah, I bought their 1st album and those 2 live ones in a batch(vinyl reissues-are these from LP's or Cd's?) and found them all jazzy & instrumentals...Good stuff! My guess is that these might have been "live" but have overdubs and fixes...though the club noise is definitely suspect :) Could be bogus...Its a good way to "re-use" material from earlier LP's. I know one CD on Blue Note that was treated in this manner-to present old material again...

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At least Ladies Night had "Too Hot"...a really nice tune/record/whatever... one could easily do a jazz version of that one, good changes...after that...not much... I freakin' HATE "Celebration", more now than then, and I loathed it then...

What's the over/under on how many times that one or more parts of "Summer Madness" have been sampled?

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I never considered these were "live" recordings.

Thank you, Mr. Nessa--Much appreciated!

Not sure about Michael Ray solos, but those 3 early records have Robert "Spike" Mickens on trumpet. He sounds good and gets a feature on Jimmy Webb's "Witchita Lineman"! He sounds a bit like Randy Brecker of the time :)

Funny how much jazz influenced Kool and the Gang, as well as my fave The Ohio Players :)

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I freakin' HATE "Celebration", more now than then, and I loathed it then...

Try having grown up in St. Louis, where "Celebration" happened to be the Baseball Cardinals theme song in 1982, the year they won the series. (Every year they had a different theme song.)

That freakin' song was EVERYWHERE (in St. Louis), especially as the season got towards the end, and especially when and after they won. It was played over (guess I should say "under") seemingly every Cardinals advert and promo, and for a few months there, you could easily hear the tune (or little clips of it) 10 times a day, without even trying.

I will loath that song until the day I die. :rmad:

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I hate to get off topic, but this seems as good a place as any. I've been noticing this for a while now--the sort of "written affectation" where someone (in this case, you, RT! :) ) will write something, then use strikethough, and then say what they meant to say. Why not just back up and delete and say what you meant to say rather than saying both?

Sorry if I'm overlooking something obvious--but I am curious. :mellow:

It was played over (guess I should say "under")
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  • 2 weeks later...

I never considered these were "live" recordings.

Thank you, Mr. Nessa--Much appreciated!

Not sure about Michael Ray solos, but those 3 early records have Robert "Spike" Mickens on trumpet. He sounds good and gets a feature on Jimmy Webb's "Witchita Lineman"! He sounds a bit like Randy Brecker of the time :)

Funny how much jazz influenced Kool and the Gang, as well as my fave The Ohio Players :)

Now purchased "Wild and Peaceful' which might be their best? Nonetheless, Robert "Spike" Mickens gets more solo space on this with very nice solos on the title track as well as "Heaven At Once". Alto player, Dennis Thomas impresses as well. I've yet to hear Mickens' solo feature on "Blowin With The Wind" on "Music Is The Message" Lp...

Still no Michael Ray solos, but he joins Kool & the Gang later, in a less jazzy phase...

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