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...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT /8 PM EDT/
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George Brown, co-founding member and drummer of Kool & the Gang, dead at 74

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George Brown, co-founding member and drummer of Kool & the Gang, dead at 74

George Brown of the band Kool & the Gang performs on stage in 2019. Brown, a drummer and songwriter who co-founded the band Kool & the Gang, died on November 16. He was 74.

 Isa Foltin/Getty Images

(CNN) � George Brown, a drummer and songwriter who co-founded the band Kool & the Gang, died on Thursday. He was 74.

The news was confirmed to CNN via email from Kool & the Gang’s publicist Jerry Digney. Brown died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer, according to Digney.

At first calling themselves the Jazziacs in 1964, Brown � along with Ricky Westfield, Ronald Bell and his brother Robert “Kool� Bell, and neighborhood friends Spike Mickens, Dennis Thomas and Charles Smith � began making music together that melded jazz, soul and funk.

After taking on various other monikers, including The New Dimensions, The Soul Town Band and Kool & the Flames, they landed on Kool & The Gang, officially launching in 1969.

Brown co-wrote many of the band’s iconic songs, including “Ladies Night� � off their 1979 album of the same name � as well as “Too Hot,� “Jungle Boogie,” “Summer Madness,� “Open Sesame,� “Celebration� and “Cherish.�

The band was nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning one in 1979 for the soundtrack album for “Saturday Night Fever.� They also won seven American Music Awards, a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame..

Brown’s signature drumming on the early Kool & The Gang recordings has been heavily sampled in the years since by artists such as Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill and The Killers, to name a few.

Until he retired in August of this year, Brown toured with Kool & the Gang as part of one of the longest-running R&B groups in history.

Brown also released his memoir this year, entitled “Too Hot: Kool & The Gang And Me.�

When asked to describe his music, the artist always replied that it was “the sound of happiness,� according to his publicist’s message this week.

Brown is survived by his wife Hanh Brown and five sons.

The-CNN-Wire

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