The sense of laid-back cool that infuses the music of the band Cymande is very much reflected in this engagingly straight-forward documentary that traces the history of the band and details the influence their work had on musicians who came after them, especially in the world of hip-hop where tracks often 20 years old were sampled by major players.
The fact that Cymande were a British band formed in the early 1970s and made up from largely untrained members of the Afro-Caribbean community in London came as a massive surprise to many and a large part of Tim MacKenzie-Smith’s film Getting Back: The Story of Cymande is about redressing the balance and providing a platform to highlight the importance of this modest but massively influential band.
The film, though, also skirts any hint of conflict or controversy and prefers to features a series of appropriately gushing interviews from fans of the band (often interviewees are actually labelled ‘fans’ as well as detailing their occupation) alongside archival footage, all set against a blissful and irresistible soundtrack featuring Cymande’s music.
Getting Back opens with footage a person looking at the Fugees’ album which featured a sample of Cymande’s track Dove (the band name derives from a calypso word for “dove”, which symbolises peace and love) followed by a series of interviewees talking about Cymande’s music. “It feels unworldly,” says one, “it’s coming from another place – and you can feel it.” Musician and Cymande fan Jim James adds: “There is just some music that is bigger than music – and you think to yourself, why isn’t this band huge?” Another comments: ”The sound unified everybody – it set the tone, it was hidden in plain sight…how have I not heard of this band before – who were those guys?”
The answer is promptly given as the film cuts to modern-day South London and introduces some of the original band members. Guitarist Patrick Patterson says: “We were all Caribbean ..not just from the same county but the same region. England was not simply the mother country but the place to go to maximise our potential.” Other members including Sam Kelly (drums), Steve Scipio (bass), Derrick Gibbs (sax) and Pablo Gonsales (percussion) talk about their cold and dismal arrival in the UK, where they encountered a society not accepting of black people (cue archival footage of casual 1970s racism). Hopes and dreams were shattered very quickly.
They were signed up by producer Joe Schroeder who also managed to get them signed onto a US record label, and in 1972 ended up playing in the US, performing at the Apollo and opening for Al Green. The film offers hints of a more political stance from the band, but quickly passes over that aspect and follows chronologically as the band returns home and some members set about forging careers and having families.
The story then passes on to those who were influenced by the band, ranging from British DJs and producers such as Norman Jay (who says Cymande “tapped all my cultural buttons”) and Jazzie B, who added: “I was second generation born and raised here and looking for my identity. Cymande fell from the sky for me! Their thing was gritty, it was raw…it was a real sound.”
The band’s music was also playing – and being sampled – in US clubs, and in New York the likes of producer/performer Masta Ace and Louie Vega, House DJ & Producer, raves about their sound. Vega says:” We never knew that the band was from the UK. We always thought it was part of New York City, like they were born in NY City because that was the music we loved.”
Producer and DJ Mark Ronson (who discovered Cymande in the early 1990s) says: “Hip hop for me was pretty much responsible for how I discovered most of my favourite music – all of the great funk and soul that I love, and jazz I listen to, I know because they were sampled…and then I would go through the bargain bins at record shop of go to some of the record conventions and find them.” What follows is a series of effusive interviews from DJs, producers and performers before the film heads to its climax, the seemingly inevitable reunion concert in front of a smiling and loving concert audience.
The film certainly reinforces how important Cymande were for the Hip-Hop movement (the band was sampled by performers such as The Fugees, The KLF, De La Soul and MC Solaar, and Spike Lee used their track Bra in his films Crooklyn and 25th Hour) and basically how wonderful the music is, but there is rarely any delving into the evolution of the music or what was behind some of the songs. Instead the film is happy to show how much the band is – and was – loved. In the end, though ,it simply makes you want to track down the music on Amazon or Spotify.
UK, 2022, 91mins
Dir: Tim MacKenzie-Smith
Production: Crawshay Films, Ventureland, VeryMuchSo
Producers: Tim MacKenzie-Smith, Matt Wyllie
Cinematography: David Corfield
Editor: Matt Wyllie
With: Derrick Gibbs, Pablo Gonsales, Sam Kelly, Patrick Patterson, Michael Rose, Steve Scipio
