Chicago Mike died in a two-car collision after performing in Atlanta | Credit: Fb
Michael Sumler, generally known as Chicago Mike of the legendary funk and R&B group Kool & the Gang, died in a automobile crash over the weekend in Georgia’s Cobb County. He was 71, a number of information retailers reported.
Sumler, a frequent Costa del Sol customer, was behind the wheel when his automobile collided with one other car simply earlier than midnight Saturday on Veterans Memorial Freeway close to Buckner Highway.
Mableton Mayor Michael Owens launched the next assertion on Fb:
“We’re saddened by the dying of musician Michael Sumler. ‘Chicago Mike’ contributed a lot to the music and leisure communities. His type and power added flare and pleasure to Kool and the Gang for many years. Town of Mableton, council members and I be part of his household, pals and followers in mourning his loss.”
Sumler had carried out on the Mable Home Barnes Amphitheatre in Mableton previous to the crash.
‘Our longtime wardrobe valet’
On their Fb web page, the Kool & the Gang band mentioned: “We’re deeply saddened to listen to concerning the passing of our longtime wardrobe valet, Mike Sumler.”
“Mike labored alongside Kool & the Gang from 2000-2015, ensuring the blokes appeared their finest on stage each night time,” they added. “He additionally hyped the gang together with his power and dance strikes on the prime of the present. Most just lately, Mike helped Kool with LeKool champagne occasions. Everybody right here at Kool & the Gang has fond recollections of Mike and can miss him. Might he relaxation in peace.”
Adrian Meeks of Music Supply Music Group mentioned, “It was a devastating blow. It’s like, no, no, not Mike.”
George Williams of Swap Leisure mentioned, “He was the hype man out of the group, getting the viewers going.”
These near Sumler say his affect prolonged far past the stage. Even in his 70s, he remained lively within the music scene, mentoring youthful musicians and serving to them navigate the business.
He preferred seeing others succeed
“He at all times needed to see different folks succeed within the enterprise that he’d been round most of all of his life,” Meeks mentioned. “He was the bridge, you understand, for uplifting artists and songwriters and producers and musicians to the legends.”
A spokesman for the band confirmed his dying. 11Alive, a TV station in Atlanta, reported that Sumler was killed after performing Sunday night with the group Con Funk Shun, whose Michael Cooper paid tribute to Sumler on social media.
“We had no concept that Sunday night time’s Love’s Prepare can be your final journey,” Cooper wrote. “Relaxation in heavenly peace.”
In one other assertion, Kool & the Gang described Sumler as “our longtime wardrobe valet” and mentioned he labored with the band from 2000 to 2015, “ensuring the blokes appeared their finest on stage each night time.”
A crowd hyper
Sumler “additionally hyped the gang together with his power and dance strikes on the prime of the present,” the group added.
Identified for hits together with “Women Evening,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Get Down on It” and “Celebration,” Kool & the Gang was shaped within the mid-Nineteen Sixties in Jersey Metropolis, N.J., by brothers Robert Bell (who glided by Kool) and Ronald Khalis Bell together with a number of neighborhood buddies, Los Angeles Occasions reported.
In 2021, Kool & the Gang turned the primary act to carry out for a full-capacity crowd on the Hollywood Bowl after a prolonged and unprecedented closure as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.