Kool & The Gang Album: “Live 40th Anniversary Greatest Hits”

I'm not going to lie, I'm a big fan of 70's soul, funk and R&B. This Kool & The Gang DVD is outstanding. The first disc is live in concert and recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. It contains all the most popular hits from the JT Taylor era plus a few of the earlier hits like Jungle Boogie, Hollywood Swinging, Open Sesame and Summer Madness. I'm tired of Celebration just because it was overplayed so much in the 80's but the rest of the DVD is outstanding.

The bonus for me is the second DVD which they interview members of the band and tell you how Kool & The Gang came to be. I love all this background information. Plus there is concert footage of the band playing in an intimate setting called Cafe Wha? in New York. This place was known for hosting musicians like Dylan, Hendrix, Kool & the Gang and others in their early days before they made it big. The Gang gets back to their original roots on this DVD. Lots of jazzy instrumentals mixed in with a little funk.

This is one of my favorite DVD purchases and if you add the Live at the House of Blues DVD you've got a complete Kool & The Gang set. This band has a fantastic horn section right up there with Earth Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and better than other bands like P-Funk, Ohio Players and Con Funk Shun. EW&F is still my #1 band but this gives me even greater appreciation for Kool & The Gang.

Highly recommended purchase!

ALL THE BEST SONGS FROM KOOL AND GANG,IF YOU ARE A FAN PLEASE BUY IT

DVD was okay, specially live at NYC Club, & listening to the Gang talk about their history together. Musically, old school instramentals show the Band's funky, original sound, but there is no JT!

I bought this dvd based on the recommendation of the other reviewers and after having loved the House of Blued dvd so much. Now I must say first and foremost that I am a fan of the "old" KATG, before they were turned into a money making discomachine. So I was really looking forward mainly to the intimate concert on the second dvd as that was comprised of the old jams that I love so much.

Much to my disappointment, however, the songs performed at the club have been edited down to a few minutes each instead of lengthy jams. To make things worse, the sound for this footage is in 2.0 stereo only. However, the documentary also on the second dvd is very interesting.

The main dvd is a bit of a letdown as well as the band seem to be going through the motions a bit, whereas they were on fire at the House of Blues concert. And the band's classic "Summer Madness" is just used as background music during the band introduction. So I'd recommend getting the House of Blues dvd instead. However, if you like the band for their JT hits, this may be a better bet.