The story behind Kool and the Gang is one of commercial realization. And while the word commercial has become something of a displeasing thing to those practicing musicians who value their independence (which is frequently accompanied by obsolescence), angling at success shouldn’t really ever be thought of as a negative unless there’re some totally abandoned principals along the way. And that can’t be said about Kool and his Gang.

Beginning during the mid sixties as a jazz group of sorts, band members became increasingly aware of the changing musical tides, which were brining in more rock based and rhythmically dynamic works. Kool and crew didn’t abandon its early configurations, though. And with the focus on its horn section, the band’s early releases found a clutch of players adept at its craft to the point where switching between genres couldn’t have presented a problem.

Sussing out a new formula for it’s 1969 debut long player, released via Polygram, Kool and the Gang landed upon something that was obviously a descendent of the hard funk and soul coming out of Memphis and New Orleans, but being based in New Jersey, the band was also familiar with the succinct song writing of the Brill Building crew and its brethren. That’s not to say that this self titled album includes any vocal pop songs. But the construction and brevity inherent in offerings like “Chocolate Buttermilk” were closely related to all the then current vocal pop groups.

Even with this sort of easy going funk cum pop stuff, each of the compositions included on this first album from Kool and the Gang were resplendent with groove. It’s odd, though, that with the eventual success of works like “Jungle Boogie” the group wasn’t able to cash in, so to speak, with this first full length. Granted, it’s an instrumental affair as opposed to what the ensemble would release off in the future. But “Give It Up” had everything that popular dance music needed at the time to become ubiquitous in an ever broadening media culture that slathered the faces of popular entertainers all of the place.

It might have just been a few years too earlier for Kool and company to have hit its stride on this first album. James Brown was obviously already the hardest working man in show business. And with the onset of folks like Al Green and Curtis Mayfield, listener’s ear holes might just not have been prepared for this funk - breaks galore and funky drumming included.