You’ve got in all probability heard the Anglo-Caribbean group Cymande, whether or not you notice it or not, particularly when you dig high quality classic hiphop and artful electronic-music producers reminiscent of Luke Vibert. That is Cymande’s incomparably uplifting tune “Bra” including spring to De La Soul’s “Change in Communicate,” and the guitar from “Dove” lending deep intrigue to Wu-Tang Clan’s “Issues” and the Fugees’ “The Rating.” That is “The Message” offering slinky groove and buoyant brass to Masta Ace’s “Me and the Biz” and the funky, gangsta-lean beats of “Brothers on the Slide” strutting by means of Metallic Fingers’ “Cedar.” In accordance with whosampled.com, their songs have been sampled 146 instances.
Cymande (pronounced “sih-MAHN-day”) are a definitive “if you realize, you realize” band. Their first three John Schroeder-produced albums—1972’s Cymande, 1973’s Second Time Spherical, and 1974’s Promised Heights—have been gold mines for these samples. With their horns, flutes, congas, and bongos, Cymande created a spicy, soulful mélange of funk, R&B, jazz, reggae, psychedelia, and West Indian people that the band coined “nyah-rock.” The debut LP’s liner notes describe it as “the music of the person who finds in life a cause for dwelling.”
Regardless of this catalog of killer cuts, they failed to realize traction of their United Kingdom house base. Cymande’s business failure there stays one of many music business’s most infuriating episodes. Extra on that later.
Against this, America welcomed them with open hearts and swaying hips. Throughout their ’70s peak, Cymande opened for soul celebrity Al Inexperienced, fellow versatile groovers Mandrill, Impressions vocalist Jerry Butler, and soul-jazz populist Ramsey Lewis. Plus, Cymande have been the primary British group to headline the Apollo. Additionally they appeared on Soul Practice.
Talking over Zoom to Cymande founders Steve Scipio (bass) and Patrick Patterson (guitar) in 2025, I detect no bitterness over their snub by Britain. As an alternative, these 75-year-old Guyana-born gents are congenial and enthused about their comeback album, the righteous and very important Renascence, and their upcoming US tour. Each males turned legal professionals after Cymande first cut up in 1974, with Scipio serving as Anguilla’s legal professional normal, and their demeanors and Caribbean-accented English are as dignified as you’d count on.
Is it bizarre now for Scipio and Patterson to play songs they wrote over 50 years in the past? “Oh no,” Scipio says. “We had a rehearsal yesterday. We hadn’t performed shortly with the band as a result of [Patrick and I] have been specializing in the promo with the brand new album over the past six weeks. However the band bought collectively in preparation for the US tour and began going over the outdated songs once more. And there was a vibe that we bought from it. Even in spite of everything these years, when you begin taking part in it and the rhythm and the groove kick in, it looks like the primary time.”
For this tour, followers can count on a number of numbers from Renascence plus what Patterson says are “normal Cymande tracks that now we have to play and that we take pleasure in taking part in: ‘The Message,’ ‘Bra,’ ‘Brothers on the Slide,’ ‘Dove.’ The brand new songs have been taking place very properly. We’re more than happy with how this album has been acquired [by the press].”
“It is a debate Patrick and I’ve loads, truly, earlier than we went into the studio,” Scipio says. “How are we going to strategy this album? There’s all the time the problem of whether or not you need to attempt to repeat the success that you simply had. You need to have a brand new strategy. One of many pleasing issues with this new album is the reviewers recognizing this new strategy and praising the band for not attempting to relive the previous.”
Renascence begins strongly with “Chasing an Empty Dream,” a name to guide a substantive life, to reject frivolous materialism, as uplifting, orchestral funk unfurls with distinctive dynamics. Produced by Ben Baptie, the album deploys strings that typically dip into syrupy sentimentality, as on “Highway to Zion” and the early phases of the Celeste-sung ballad “Solely One Means.” Cymande stay greatest when stripping issues all the way down to necessities and permitting house for guitar, bass, congas, or flute to work their fluid magic.
That includes Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B’s inspirational rap, “How We Roll” most carefully resembles the spacey tranquility of the elegant “Dove.” One other spotlight is “Carry the Phrase,” which reveals Cymande’s affinity for minimalist funk, understated emotional heft, and Curtis Mayfield-like hopefulness.
“Coltrane”—all smooth funk with piquant conga slaps and a slithery Scipio bass line—hails jazz deity John’s music as an inspirational pressure. Blaxploitation-flick orchestral billows and essential triangle accents set off shivers; some could notice similarities with the Undisputed Reality’s “Ungena Za Ulimwengu/Friendship Practice.”
Patterson says “Coltrane” factors to their “nice musical kinship” with Alice’s husband. “Steve stated [John Coltrane is] a metaphor for nice Black music. When you concentrate on John Coltrane’s repertoire and the best way folks love and respect him, and the management that he has given to us as musicians… I imply, there are others, however he is a terrific consultant of what we have to do—which is, pursue excellence. Musical excellence simply would not come from right here [points to head]. It is a supernatural impulse.”
In an interview with Large Concern, Scipio stated, “We wished to have the sound recognisably Cymande, but in addition, a extra modern component to it.” Towards that finish, they enlisted revered jazz musicians from the UK’s fertile scene, together with keyboardist Adrian Reid, vocalist Raymond Simpson, drummer Richard Bailey, and percussionist Donald Gamble.
“Clearly, we could not recreate what we have been doing within the ’70s,” Scipio says. “What we have been on the lookout for is that dwell component. The primary album [Cymande] was recorded in a dwell format, so we went to the studio and the band carried out as we’d usually onstage. As a result of that was how we fed off of one another.”
Backtracking a bit, it is mystifying that after Cymande had success in America, British media and gatekeepers did not embrace them. Was this rejection strictly because of racism, or have been there different components? Patterson says, “[British Black music] didn’t get publicity, apart from the kind that’s innocuous—in line with this concept that music of Caribbean folks having the intense shirts on, tied round their navels. None of that stuff about standing up for your self or conserving brotherhood collectively was acceptable. You’ll be able to’t be poking that down the throats of the British listening public, at their very own expense.” However, America “enabled our music to be sustained, and enabled us to come back again at this late stage.”
Scipio provides, “We left as an unknown band within the UK, had this huge success within the US, and we returned to be an unknown band within the UK. You’d suppose that the media would marvel, who’re these guys? That they’d be proud {that a} UK band had entered the US and had that diploma of success.”
Possibly Cymande wanted to put on extra glittery costumes, I supply. Scipio and Patterson snicker, because the latter says, “We must always’ve completed the Hula Hoop.”
Fortunately, Cymande regained management of their copyrights in 1989 and have reaped monetary rewards from all these samples. However have they heard any that did not please them? No. “The truth that folks discover one thing in your music to encourage them to create their very own music, that’s in itself worthy,” Scipio says.
As a terminal Cymande fanboy, I could not resist telling Steve and Patrick that I usually start DJ units with “Dove,” as a result of it really works like sonic sage, cleaning rooms of all adverse vitality. “That is wonderful,” Patterson says. I proclaim that “Dove” is likely one of the best items of music ever and ask what they’ll keep in mind about its creation.
Scipio recollects, “He began with the melody, and I began with the bass and the melody, and we developed it that approach. We experimented, feeding off of one another in its creation.”
“You understand, it is nearly really feel ,” Patterson emphasizes. “It envelops you, it takes you over. The sensation that we created in placing that track collectively, every thing gave the impression to be in the appropriate place. It has a really magical sensitivity about it.”
For extra data on Cymande, watch Tim MacKenzie-Smith’s documentary, Getting It Again (obtainable for rental by way of Mercury Studios starting Feb 19 for a restricted time). Cymande carry out on the Crocodile on Feb 22, 6 pm, $30, 21+.
