Cork Jazz Fest review: Cymande get into their groove at Opera House 

Cymande featured among the highlights of Friday at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 

Cymande on stage at Cork Opera House on Friday during the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane

It’s a measure of the pulling power of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival that a band like Cymande can pack out the 1,000-capacity Opera House. Any other time of year and the recently-reformed British-Caribbean funksters would likely be playing a Leeside venue half that size.

That’s no disrespect to a group who broke through in 1972 with classic single The Message. And who enjoyed a later revival thanks to widely-used samples by the likes of De La Soul and The Fugees. But Cymande were a group your cool DJ mate might have been into, rather than your Top 40-loving uncle.