George “Funky” Brown was one of the founding members of the R&B group Kool and the Gang. Brown played drums for the band for over 50 years. He died November 16, 2023 in his Los Angeles home at the age of 74 as a result of cancer.
Brown, the Bell brothers Robert and Ronald, and Charles Smith started the band as the Jazziacs in 1964 in Jersey City, New Jersey while they were in high school.
It would be some 10 years before Kool & The Gang broke out with their first hit “Jungle Boogie”. Along with holding down the beat for the band, Brown helped to write many of the band’s songs, and produced their albums.
Brown described his music as “the sound of happiness.”
They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery; but in music, it’s sampling and reportedly Kool and the Gang have had their music sampled some 2,000 times including artists Snoop Dogg, Mary J Blige, , and Ice Cube.
While they have yet to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Kool and the Gang have earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, a “Soul Train” Legend Award, a Music Business Association Chairman’s Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
George Melvin Brown Jr, was born in Hersey City, NJ on January 15, 1949.
With the death of Brown, Robert “Kool” Bell is the only surviving member of the band. Brown saved his paper route money to buy his first set of drums.
Every budding drummer has made use of the pots and pans in the kitchen as a small child. Brown took it one step further…he used a set of butter knives for drum sticks until he could buy the real thing.
Brown is survived by his wife Hannah and five children – Dorian, Jorge, Gregory, Jordan, and Aaron
The family has requested that donations be made to the American Cancer Society in lieu of sending flowers.
Feature photo credit: Kool & the Gang – Leverkusener Jazztage 2017-1963 (cropped).jpg