Wild and Peaceful

iTunes Review

The first two songs on Wild & Peaceful are called “Funky Stuff” and “More Funky Stuff,” respectively. Though the titles are accurate, they cover only one dimension of the album and the band. By the time Wild & Peaceful was released in 1973, Kool & the Gang had been jamming together for a full decade, and had evolved into an air-tight unit capable of laying down both hard-driving funk, as on “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging,” as well as the ethereal jazz of the nine-and-a-half minute title track, with its intertwined trumpet, flute, sax, and guitar solos. Simply put, their musicianship is staggering, and this album captures them at the peak of their powers. These “scientists of sound” can smolder one moment, as they do on “Heaven at Once,” which features a spoken plea for peace and unity, and then erupt into a raging fire the next. Regardless of tempo, they never miss, combining scratchy guitar, crisp horn lines, bubbling bass, and skittering drums into polyrhythmic perfection. Funky stuff, indeed.