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Calgary Herald

Calgary folk fest: Cymande may have one of the best comeback stories of all time, but founders say the band never really broke up

Article content While the band was gaining traction in the U.S., it was virtually ignored after returning home to England. Scipio and Patterson left the United Kingdom and both became lawyers. Scipio even became the Attorney General of Anguilla for seven years. Article content 'The success and the recognition, we had reached a certain level (in America) and felt we could not fall below a certain standard,' Scipio says. 'We were not prepared to do that. I should also say family interests had an impact on our decision. So we decided to call it a day, take a break and then revisit sometime down the road.' Article content 'We described it (as) being a question of dignity and properly representing those who had found something worthwhile in the music,' Patterson adds. 'With those two things in mind, you can't go back to something that didn't match those achievements. We had to stand for something, having done what we did, being accepted by American audiences in the way we had been. You can keep going, going, going if you want to play the pub or some small clubs, but that said nothing to us. That did not represent what audiences had done in recognizing our music as valuable to them, as meaningful to them. Having another place to go or a desire (for) another place made it easy to stop for the length of time that we eventually did.' Article content Article content 'I myself have probably always been a lawyer in my head,' Patterson adds with a laugh. 'But that's quite a different thing from being a lawyer in real time. But it was good to have that, if you like, failsafe.' Article content Music has returned to the forefront now. Cymande released Renascence in January, its first new album in a decade. Scipio and Patterson have always resisted characterizing Cymande as a funk band, and the new album showcases a hybrid of genres. That includes the dark funk and deep-soul grooves that open Chasing an Empty Dream, the soft R&B of Road to Zion and jazz beats of Coltrane, a tribute to one of the band's earliest influences. Article content The piano-led ballad Only One Way features a stunning vocal by British neo-soul artist Celeste, who asked to collaborate with the band. British DJ Jazzie B joins the group for the soaring, shape-shifting, sing-along How We Roll. Article content Article content 'Over the years, we have never stopped writing,' Scipio says. 'But this new project has been a real pleasure because we have managed to find an avenue that connected our past with our present and our future as we saw it.' Article content As for the hip-hop artists that helped bring Cymande back to the spotlight, the two musicians are appreciative. Article content 'The young guys who use bits of our music to make their own creations have done a wonderful job,' says Scipio. Article content 'To have your work recognized in that way by peer musicians is a fantastic thing,' Patterson says. 'Especially after the period of time and the struggles that we had experienced in the '70s. To find a younger generation having that connectedness with something you had created all that time ago makes you feel that it had value for it to sustain itself… The thing you created has value that transcends generations. I'm certainly very proud of what we did in the 1970s.'