BUENA PARK, Calif. — Kool & The Gang's story starts in the Jersey City, N.J. projects. They were teenagers, studying Miles Davis albums and James Brown singles while jamming in basements. In 1969, they made their first record. Still teenagers, and full of confidence, they named that first record after themselves. Their confidence and creativity produced a string of loose-but-tight records, culminating in the Pop Chart smash Jungle Boogie. Kool & The Gang found a special sound at the unique intersection of jazz, r&b, funk and pop. The group’s current monitor sound, and for the past seven years, can be attributed to Alfred ‘AL-Tee’ Williams who for the past four years has been using a Yamaha PM5D digital audio console.
“One of the best things I like about the Yamaha PM5D console is its Recall capabilities, “states ‘Al-Tee’. Self-taught on the console, ‘Al-Tee’ takes his 5D card from gig to gig and pops it into a console with his saved settings to any production-supplied PM5D console. “Routing my outputs and inputs is wonderful, plus the updated software version allows me to use 24 GEQ on my mixes.” Williams says he looks forward to checking out the new PM5D-EX with DSP5D Expander capabilities.
NEXO monitors are used for most Kool & the Gang shows. The band uses Sennheiser EW-300 in-ear monitors and AMT mics are used for the horns.
Kool & The Gang maintains a heavy touring schedule, and this summer appears in St. Petersburg, Boca Raton, Amelia Island, FL; Rochester, NY; San Jacinto, CA; Garland, TX; Gulfport, MS; Las Vegas, NV; Mableton, GA; Bethehem, PA; before departing for Spain, The Netherlands, Germany and Finland.
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