Reunited UK Funk Legends Team With Instrumental Group At Regency
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- One of most legendary British funk outfits of the 1970s that made a surprise return to activity several years ago plays its first San Francisco show in decades when Cymande shares the stage with Brooklyn instrumental stalwarts the Budos Band Sunday at the Regency.
Discovered by producer John Schroeder in 1971, Cymande -- pronounced SEE-mandy -- explored a hypnotic style of funk that incorporated elements of jazz and rock as well as Caribbean and African influences (the group included members from Guyana, Jamaica and St. Vincent).
Anchored by bassist Steve Scipio and guitarist Patrick Patterson, the nine-piece group got signed to Janus Records after Schroeder encountered them in a Soho club in London. They scored a hit right out of the box with the propulsive dance track "The Message" from their eponymous debut in 1972. A second single, "Bra," would also find chart success in the U.S. with Scipio's trademark burbling bass line and hefty percussion. The band was also among the first to invoke
The band was invited to tour the States in support of soul vocalist Al Green. The group became a regular visitor to the U.S., headlining their own concerts and sharing the stage with such '70s contemporaries as Billy Preston, Ramsey Lewis, KC and The Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang and like-minded Latin-funk ensemble, Mandrill.
The band had diminished success with their more politically charged sophomore album, Second Time Round, and had their third effort Promised Heights limited to just U.K. release. By 1975, the group had dissolved. But like so many classic funk and soul bands from the era, their music found a second life when the above mentioned hits and album cuts like "Dove" would become favored breakbeat tracks used by early hip-hop DJs Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash.
The band would become heavily sampled in hip-hop's golden era, with groups like De La Soul, Fugees, Masta Ace, the Wu Tang Clan and the Bay Area's own the Coup. With reissues of their classic material selling steadily, the band would eventually regroup with members taking the stage together in 2006 at a festival in Brighton. Scipio and Patterson would reconvene a new line-up with four other original players (drummer Sam Kelly, sax/flute player Mike Rose, saxophonist Derek Gibb and percussionist Pablo Gonsales), eventually recording and releasing A Simple Act of Faith in 2014.
The band will be joined for this first Bay Area gig in years by East Coast funk outfit the Budos Band. Over the past decade, the Staten Island-based crew has been refining its unique style of opiated instrumental grooves, interweaving Fela Kuti's propulsive Afrobeat rhythms and Mulatu Astatke's atmospheric Ethiopian jazz with strands of Latin, '70s cop show themes, and psychedelia.
For Burnt Offering -- their most recent release on Daptone Records -- the collective detours into decidedly heavier territory. Turning the volume and distortion to 11, the band injects heavy elements of Black Sabbath into their sound with the corrosive menace of "Aphasia" and the album's scorching title track. This pairing of distinctive funk groups by party promoters HushConcerts is sure to bring out a full house of dance music fans Sunday night. Renowned Bay Area DJ Motion Potion will also be on hand to warm up the crowd with a selection of funky classics.
Cymande with the Budos Band
Sunday, June 5, 8 p.m. $37.50-$45
Regency Ballroom
