MOJO EYEWITNESS
From south London via the Caribbean, they launched their super-rhythmic psych-funk ‘nyah-rock’ in the clubs of Britain in 1971. Success awaited in America, where they headlined the Harlem Apollo, toured with Al Green and sowed hip-hop seeds with killer cuts like Dove and Bra. Yet Britain didn’t know what it had, and in 1974 they began a 40-year hiatus. “You can’t be superstars coming from Balham,” say the resurgent band, friends and admirers, “[but] we were so ahead of our time we still fit in.”
Steve Scipio: Patrick Patterson and I had been in Metre, a jazz band, but our drummer was moving to Australia.
Then we worked with Mike Rose in Ginger Johnson’s African Drummers while formulating Cymande. We didn’t want to do pop music or go back to jazz, we wanted to do something more expressive in terms of our personalities and messages we might communicate.
Mike Rose: When I met them I was into percussion and African music. I was a fan of Roland Kirk and played flute but I took up saxophone seriously just before I joined Cymande. I introduced a Rastafarian flavour to the band and I brought in percussionist Pablo Gonsales, who had the Rasta vibe.
Pablo Gonsales: I didn’t go to school to learn drums, it’s all coming from within. It’s like a gift was handed down to me from my ancestors. I was born with it and it’s spiritual.
Patrick Patterson: Pablo was a special guy, our talisman, and had a real spirituality. He brought something special to our rhythmic sensibility, something nobody else was doing.
Sam Kelly: Cymande was my first gig, I was 17. They had a show at the Oval in south London and needed a drummer. Somebody walked past my house and heard me banging on my brother’s kit. They didn’t know if I was good, bad or indifferent, but they came down to ask me and I ended up playing with them.
Derrick Gibbs: Steve asked me to join for that gig. I was playing alto with a jazz band and came from the cool side, be-bop, not the extensions that Coltrane took, they were a bit much for me.
