Us3 Hand On The Torch Albums, CDs, Vinyl Records and LPs

Us3 - Hand On The Torch

Us3
Hand On The Torch

The idea of fusing jazz and rap is no longer new. Still, if it doesn't exactly break new musical ground, Hand on the Torch, the debut by Us3, manages to attain a few firsts. Never before has a group sampled so extensively, or exclusively, from the legendary Blue Note jazz catalog. The core of Us3 is two white British jazz enthusiasts, Mel Simpson and Geoff Wilkinson, who had long been active recording jazz-rap collusions. When they got a phone call from Capitol Records last January, they expected that the label, which controls the Blue Note catalog, wanted to sue them for unlicensed sampling. Instead, Us3 were offered a recording contract.

For the album, Simpson and Wilkinson
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assembled a host of young British musicians who could ably jam with samples from Art Blakey, Donald Byrd and others. Almost incidental to the final product are vocals by three rappers – Kobie Powell and Rahsaan, both from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Tukka Yoot, a Jamaican born in England. While the rapping is never embarrassing, it consistently fails to command attention, and in any event is hardly the point of this recording.

As its title suggests, the theme of Hand on the Torch is the passing of the musical torch from one generation to another, and the spotlight is on the way the instrumentalists interpret and improvise with the classic material that forms the basis of most of the songs. While many tracks attain cool, laid-back grooves that will probably have commercial appeal for fans of intelligent dance music, the live playing is timid next to the visionary music that has been sampled. Us3 offer ear candy without bringing much to the party except their youth. "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)," for example, based on Herbie Hancock's Afro-Cuban flavored "Cantaloupe Island," is as easily digested as the fruit it's named after. But ultimately, what Us3 have delivered is closer to an acid-jazz remix than a truly original fusion of hip-hop and jazz. The rapping is so lite it hardly bears commentary, and the playing fails to recontextualize Hancock's brilliant composition.

One hopes that a new generation of fans will be inspired to check out seminal Blue Note recordings by the likes of Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver and Blakey – but once they do, will they ever want to go back to Us3? (RS 677)

DIMITRI EHRLICH

Us3 - Hand On The Torch CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

Us3 - Hand On The Torch