<P> Kool & the Gang is an American funk and rhythm and blues band that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s . </P> <P> In 1964, thirteen - year - old Robert Bell, his brother Ronald, and five high - school friends in Jersey City, New Jersey, formed an instrumental band called the Jazziacs . They changed their name to Kool & the Flames in 1967, then Kool & the Gang in 1969 (to avoid confusion with James Brown's Famous Flames) and were signed by Gene Redd to his new record label De-Lite Records in 1969 . </P> <P> The band consisted of Robert "Kool" Bell (bass), Ronald Bell (keyboards), Robert Mickens (trumpet), Dennis Thomas (saxophone), Ricky West, George Brown (drums), and Charles Smith (guitar). </P> <P> The Bell brothers' father Bobby and uncle Tommy were boxers . They moved to New York to train and lived in the same apartment building as Thelonious Monk, who became Robert's godfather when he was born . Miles Davis would drop by because he wanted to be a boxer . They played occasionally with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, and Leon Thomas . </P>

Who was kool in kool and the gang
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