Cymande
Cork Opera House
★★★★☆
It has been a long road for Cymande. Formed in London in the early 1970s, the group fused funk, soul, reggae and jazz into a distinctive, Caribbean-rooted sound. Though they found some success in the US with the song Dove, they stopped performing by the late 1970s.
Then came an unexpected twist: their music was sampled and resurrected by hip-hop and R&B artists including Fugees, De La Soul and Wu-Tang Clan. They resurfaced yet again, decades later, through YouTube, and now, after 40 years away, Cymande are back on the road, touring their new album, Renascence, and finding a new generation of listeners ready to groove.
At Cork Opera House, as part of the city’s jazz festival, it’s easy to understand why there’s such an appetite for their music. Contemporary musicians doing anything interesting tend to reflect a kind of atomised, nihilistic mood, but Cymande offer the opposite: the easy, reaffirming rhythms of the 1970s, a faith in collective action and change, a sense of coming together rather than drifting apart. The atmosphere in the hall is open and relaxed.
“Irish people are the warmest people we’ve ever met, and we’ve met a lot of warm people touring the world,” says the vocalist Raymond Simpson, earning loud cheers. The mutual appreciation makes sense: south London, where the band is from, has a long history of Irish as well as Caribbean immigration. The bassist Steve Scipio adds: “Cork is my second-favourite city. The first is my own.” From the opening track, the set feels lush and expansive, radiating good vibes.
READ MORE
The band’s joy to be back onstage is genuine and contagious. Simpson leads with soulful vocals and laid-back charisma. Kevin Davy performs a beautiful trumpet solo, and Richard Bailey’s drum solo is truly virtuosic. Each musician contributes with precision and restraint, creating a cohesive, balanced performance. The result is a polished sound with an easy, unforced sense of musical conversation and camaraderie.
How We Roll turns into a communal singalong, and the energy surges again with beloved classics such as Brothers on the Slide, interwoven seamlessly with songs from the new album, such as Chasing an Empty Dream. When Simpson chants Peace Shall Be Now, someone in the pit throws a keffiyeh onstage. The crowd joins in at various points, chanting back the slogans “Stand up for your rights” and “Music is the message, the message is music”. There’s an idealistic atmosphere you don’t find much any more; it’s both reassuring and nostalgic.
When the audience demands an encore, the band return to perform a generously long jam; no one wants the night to end. Scipio steps to the microphone to thank the audience: “For those who weren’t there at the start, I appreciate you finding us. For those who’ve been here since the start…” he says, grinning, “how’s it going?” He says it the way only a Londoner can: part brotherly recognition, part spiritual benediction.
