Cymande - Promised Heights (50th)

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Cymande’s Promised Heights, a record that closed out an historic three album run of seminal early '70s Afro-soul that also included their 1972 self-titled debut and 1973’s Second Time Round. Promised Heights solidified Cymande’s place in music history, and contains some of their most-beloved and often-sampled tracks such as “Brothers On The Slide”. As children of the Windrush Generation, Cymande were part of the first wave of innovators and originators of the fledgling Black British music scene. Taking influences from their Guyanese and Jamaican roots, the band fused reggae bass lines, Afro-tinged Nyabinghi percussion, psychedelic rock touches, and American style funk instrumentation into a unique sound they dubbed as “Nyah-rock.” Promised Heights was recorded following the band’s US tour with Al Green, which had firmly planted Cymande in the ears of an adoring American audience. Cymande were also the first British band to ever play the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem.