SAMPLED: Kool & the Gang – Summer Madness

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donell jones, erykah badu, guru, ice cube, kool & the gang, sampled, summer madness

Kool & The Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, funk and disco group, originally formed in 1964 as the Jazziacs based in Jersey City, New Jersey.

They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of funk and R&B, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound.

They have sold over 70 million albums worldwide.

Song SUMMER MADNESS was released on their fifth album – LIGHT OF THE WORLDS in 1974. It was a landmark in the funk/jazz fusion genre of the 1970s.

Light of Worlds was by far Kool & the Gang’s most spiritual and sophisticated work, produced in the wake of the success of their previous album, Wild and Peaceful. While it was their seventh album of new material, the Gang considered Light of the Worlds their ninth LP (counting two compilations), and therefore consciously chose nine songs for the album, to represent the nine planets in the solar system. The album contains rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing.

“Summer Madness” is considered to be the album’s highlight, incorporating smooth melodies and a synthesizer. A remake of “Summer Madness” was released on the Gang’s 1993 album Unite titled “WKOOL/Summer”