CYMANDE at FITZGERALDS Outdoors!Cymande (sah-man-day). The most important black British group of their generation, a band so many people have heard, but yet not heard of. In the early 1970s in South London, a group of black musicians, who all emigrated to the UK from the Caribbean as children, formed the group. Led by Patrick Patterson (guitars, vocals) and Steve Scipio (bass, vocals) Cymande was so unique and ahead of its time that, notwithstanding the success in the States in the early 70s, it hasnt been until recent years that the general public has truly begun to catch on. Their first three albums: Cymande (1972), Second Time Round (1973) and Promised Heights (1974) combined jazz, funk, soul, and Caribbean grooves to create a unique sound of their own; music that was both political and spiritual. While they found success in the U.S. (referred to above) becoming the first British band to ever perform at New Yorks legendary Apollo Theater and touring arenas and stadiums with Al Green, there was little enthusiasm from the British music industry to promote or patronize home grown black acts individually or as a collective scene. Total lack of interest, Steve says bluntly. Had we been a white rock band returning to the UK we wouldnt have been ignored, and that impacted on our thinking at the time. How long should we put up with this? So lets take a break, get our heads together and revisit in a couple of years. That couple of years became almost forty. However, their music lived on as new generations of artists discovered and reworked their pioneering sounds. Over and over again, several tracks from their albums were sampled by golden age hip-hop icons like De La Soul, The Fugees, MC Solaar, Masta Ace, EPMD, and Gang Starr just to name a few. In 2025 they returned to finish what they started. The bands new album (via BMG) Renascence is ten shots of purest Cymande and has been enthusiastically received by critics and fans on both sides of the Atlantic. A true return t