{"id":146819,"date":"2024-02-27T13:08:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centmagazine.co.uk\/?p=146819"},"modified":"2024-02-27T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T13:14:08","slug":"cymande-the-band-you-never-knew-you-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.centmagazine.co.uk\/?p=146819","title":{"rendered":"Cymande; The Band You Never Knew, You Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes we hear a tune, a melody we recognise, something rings a bell, and we think ‘Yeah I know This Tune’ but in truth, we are not sure who it’s by or when we first heard it. If you love funk, Soul, Hip-Hop, or many other styles of music that fit within the dance realm then the band Cymande’s music will be familiar to you, except you may well not realise it’s them. Truly funky tunes from the early ’70s when dance music was really flying in the USA. So you make think the band is some kind of Rave Groove set up from the States, not a London-based collective, who inspired literally generations of music makers but never had a hit in their own backyard. Find out more in Cymande; The Band You Never Knew, You Knew<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ever danced at clubs in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s onwards, then this practically unheard-of band would have influenced more or less every piece of music you moved to, even if it was dancing around your own kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cymande, a Black British group from the 1970s, who by rights should have become British Funk superstars, never had any hits or even success in the UK but whose songs did eventually change music history and in particular shape the sound of dance music forever more.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It was the early 70s in the south London areas of Balham and Brixton, a group of Black musicians, who came to the UK from the Caribbean including from Jamaica, Guyana, and St Vincent, and as children, were part of the Windrush generation, formed Cymande<\/em> (Pronounced Si-Man-Day). Led by Patrick Patterson (guitar) and Steve Scipio (bass) with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace, the band combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to create a new unique sound; music that was political, spiritual, with a dove as their symbol, and who were way ahead of their time. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Their songs encouraged the listener to travel through the development of Black music and the social experience to which it gave voice, and were honed in a rehearsal space in Brixton, as the band refined their skills in the pubs and clubs of the London afro rock and jazz scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was in a Soho basement club they were discovered by John Schroeder the eminent music producer. He loved what he heard and soon he and the band were working on their first, self-titled album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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