[ad_1]
George “Funky” Brown — the important thing drummer and one of many founding members of Kool & The Gang — has died … TMZ has realized.
Sources with direct information inform us the legendary musician died from most cancers at his dwelling in Los Angeles Thursday night time, ending his wonderful 59-year profession as a songwriter and drummer for the legendary funk band. He’d been battling stage-4 most cancers.
A rep for the group tells TMZ, “George Brown died November 16, 2023 in Los Angeles after a battle with most cancers. Brown has co-written lots of the band’s iconic songs, together with “Women Evening,” “Too Sizzling,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Celebration,” and “Cherish.” When requested to explain his music, Brown at all times replied, ‘The sound of happiness.'”
GB had been identified with lung most cancers, and really recovered for some time earlier than hitting the highway once more to tour and carry out — however he suffered one other setback this yr when the most cancers returned. George chronicled his well being struggles final month with KCAL News.
George and the remainder of the group got here collectively in 1964 to create the supergroup in Jersey Metropolis, NJ. The opposite founding members included brothers Robert Bell (bass) and Ronald Bell (keyboards), Dennis Thomas (saxophone), Robert Mickens (Trumpet), Ricky West (keyboards) and Charles Smith (guitarist).
The band landed their first recording take care of De-Lite Information, cranking out their debut album titled, “Kool & The Gang,” in 1969.
However they did not attain stardom till 1973 once they launched their fourth report known as “Wild And Peaceable,” that includes a few of their greatest songs like “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging.”
They adopted up with a string of tremendous profitable information named “Women Evening” (1979), “Have a good time!” (1980) and “Emergency” (1984), which offered a whopping 2 million albums within the U.S. alone. All three information produced a slew of extremely popular tunes, together with “Celebration,” which rocketed to primary on the charts.
Through the years, Kool & The Gang has been widely known within the music trade, snagging 2 Grammy Awards, 7 American Music Awards, a Music Enterprise Affiliation Chairman’s Award and a Soul Practice Legend Award. They had been additionally given a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame.
Robert “Kool” Bell is the one surviving member of the band left.
A spokesperson says donations could be made in his honor to the Lung Most cancers Society of America.
Brown is survived by his spouse, Hanh Brown and his 5 youngsters.
George was 74. RIP
[ad_2]
