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Us3: Hand on the Torch

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Capitol Records
Released: 1993
Time:
 54:49
Category: Jazz / Rap
Producer(s): Mel Simpson, Geoff Wilkinson
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.us3.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2000.12.08
Price in €: 6,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Cantaloop [Flip Fantasia] (Hancock/Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 4:39
[2] I Got It Goin' On (Kelly/Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Wilkinson) - 5:18
[3] Different Rhythms Different People (Simpson/Wilkinson) - 1:16
[4] It's Like That (Parker/Powell/Rolli/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 3:41
[5] Just Another Brother (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Hubbard) - 3:42
[6] Cruisin' (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 3:30
[7] I Can Go to Work (Monk/Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 4:06
[8] Tukka Yoot's Riddim (Covay/Cropper/Simpson/Taylor/Wilkinson) - 5:41
[9] Knowledge of Self (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 4:18
[10] Lazy Day (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson) - - 4:40
[11] Eleven Long Years (Hancock/Silver/Simpson/Taylor/Wilkinson) - 3:47
[12] Make Tracks (Powell/Sample/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 4:45
[13] Darkside (Kelly/Mizell/Simpson/Wilkinson) - 5:19

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Mike Smith - Tenor Saxophone
Steve Williamson - Soprano Saxophone
Ed Jones - Soprano & Tenor Saxophone
Matt Cooper - Piano
Gerard Presencer - Trumpet
Tony Remy - Guitar
Dennis Rollins - Trombone, Trumpet
Mel Simpson - Keyboards, Programming, Engineer, Mixing

Kobie Powell - Rap
Rahsaan - Rap
Tukka Yoot - Rap
Marie Harper - Background Vocals

Geoff Wilkinson - Scratching, Programming, Engineer, Sampling, Mixing
Felix Cromey - Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Hip-hop/jazzers Us3 have forged the most elaborate union between the styles since the early days of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest. Blue Note's vast catalog gives them a huge advantage over several similar groups in terms of source material, and classic sounds by Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock provide zest and fiber to their narratives. Indeed, when things falter, it's because the raps aren't always that creative. They are serviceable and sometimes catchy, but too often delivered without the snazzy touches or distinctive skills that make Quest and Gang Starr's material top-notch. But when words and music mesh, as on "Cantaloop" or "The Darkside," Us3 show how effectively hip-hop and jazz can blend.

Ron Wynn, All-Music Guide



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 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)

Copyright © 1968-1999 Rolling Stone Network. All Rights Reserved.



Rap listeners with a few seasons under their belts may have choked a bit last year when fed the line that Digable Planets and Guru's Jazzmatazz represented something new, jazz-hip-hop. After all, posses from Public Enemy to P.M. Dawn built on the foundations of both jazz samples and structures, a point explicitly made by Blue Note's Blue Break Beats compilation. The only thing "new" was that these jacks seemed more slack, took the concept more literally, and used live musicians along with samples. Without much to compare them to, it was hard to separate potential from execution. Leave that to US 3. Having gained the fortune of a deal with Blue Note (no doubt looking to follow up BBB), the British duo had carte blanche to raid the catalog for sample/loop gems, including bits from Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, T.S. Monk, Donald Byrd and Grant Green. They blended those with their own posse of live players, two Brooklynite rappers and a Brit/Jamaican toaster, all with slammin' skills. The result is a groove stew so perfectly blended that it's difficult even to point out highlights (OK, try the already-hit "Cantaloop" or "Tukka Yoot's Riddim"). While others have to call themselves "experimental" to downplay their rough edges, the only question US 3 begs is "Why can't anyone else do this so well?"

© 1978-1999 College Media Inc. All rights reserved.



Meet US 3 (pronounced "us three"), the acid-jazz brainchild of two Englishmen, Geoff Wilkinson and Mel Simpson. One day last year, when the phone rang and Capitol Records was on the line, the two expected the worst for their fledgling group, figuring they were being sued for unlicensed sampling oT recordings owned by the revered Blue Note jazz label, used on US 3's underground club hit "The Band Played The Boogie." Instead, the offer was a major contract, including unrestricted sampler's license to roam the entire Blue Note catalog, a kid-in-a-candy-store proposition for jazz hounds like Wilkinson and Simpson. And so, underneath Hand On The Torch's subdued rapping, buried in the sultry, funky, acid-jazz musical blend are licks from classic performances by Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock and Art Blakey. Though, in all honesty, only an insanely dedicated jazz fan would be able to tell by listening that all these samples were originally produced for one label, it does give US 3's music an aura, a sense of strength and stylish elegance that is palpable in its ambitious music. When on "Different Rhythms, Different People," a sampled voice (we're guessing Art Blakey) comments "For those of you who've come in late, we are now having a little cooking session for Blue Note," he is not only describing the scene then, but presciently telling the truth about events far in the future.

© 1978-1999 College Media Inc. All rights reserved.



Ki ne hallotta volna Herbie Hancock 60-as évekbol származó Cantaloup Island Blue Note felvételének "rapesített" változatát. Ez az 1994-ben készített felvétel az eredeti zene bizonyos elemeit a 90-es évek ritmusgroove-jaival és rapénekkel vegyítette. Nagy siker lett, és egyben megosztotta a hallgatóságot. Míg az egyik fél blaszfémiát kiáltott, a másik rész örömmel üdvözölte, hogy a 60-as évek funky Blue Note zenéit, Hancockot, Silvert, Jimmy Smitht sikeres popfelvételeken hallhatta újra. A harmadik tábor lehetett a sikert hozó többség, akik nem tudták, ezek a fülbemászó dallamocskák milyen eredetuek.

Az 1991-ben alakított együttes Geoff Wilkinson koncertpromoter és jazzkritikus, valamint a komponista-zongorista Mel Simpson agytröszt szüleménye, ok szerzodtették késobb a rappereket és a többi zenészt is. 1992-es daluk, a The Band That Played The Boogie annyira megnyerte a Capitol lemeztársaság tetszését, hogy megengedték Simpsonnak és Wilkinsonnak, hogy bármit szabadon felhasználhassanak mintavétel (sampling) céljából a birtokukban lévo Blue Note-anyagból. A mintavételezés azt jelenti, hogy az eredeti zenei anyag hosszabb-rövidebb részleteit digitalizált formátumra változtatva, mintegy szintetizátor-hangszínként lehet alkalmazni. Az elso albumot (Hands on the Torch) a jazzsajtó az együttes pozitív montreux-i fogadtatása dacára negligálta, a japán Swing Journal viszont az év lemezének kiáltotta ki. Második, Broadway & 52-nd címu albumuk nem tudott slágert felmutatni, viszont a kritika értékelte pozitívan.

Az effajta "zenei beavatkozás" nyilvánvalóan ízlés kérdése, akit a 90-es évek ritmusai vagy a rap idegesítenek, mereven elzárkózik ettol. Jómagam nem ebbe a csoportba tartozom, és egyben örülök, hogy ifjúkorom zenéit a mai fiatalság is megismerheti. Az, hogy ezek a 30-40 évvel ezelotti felvételek a mai köntösbe öltöztetést ilyen jól bírják, sot ma is hordoznak üzenetet, önmagáért beszél.

Grammofon Budapest Music Center, Friedrich Károly
 

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 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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