Us3

In 1994 the jazz/hip-hop fusion collective Us3 achieved widespread success with the track “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia),” whose use of classic Blue Note material exemplified the group’s sampling approach, notably drawing on Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island.” The ensemble originated in London during 1992 after concert promoter and jazz writer Geoff Wilkinson encountered Mel Simpson, a composer of television and advertising music who had previously performed keyboards alongside John Mayall. Together they issued the independent single “Where Will We Be in the 21st Century?,” which moved fewer than 250 copies. Later that same year the song “The Band That Played the Boogie” caught the ear of Capitol Records, owner of the Blue Note imprint, prompting the label to grant Simpson and Wilkinson unrestricted access to its archives. The pair promptly assembled a roster of supporting musicians and recruited rappers Kobie Powell and Rahsaan Kelly, later adding vocalist Tukka Yoot. Those sessions yielded both the hit “Cantaloop” and the album Hand on the Torch. Us3 subsequently toured Japan and Europe while steadily shifting away from sampled elements during live performances, delivering a warmly received set at the 1993 Montreux Jazz Festival. Although most jazz outlets overlooked Hand on the Torch, Japan’s Swing Journal named it Album of the Year and Britain’s The Independent designated Us3 Jazz Musicians of the Year. Following a delay of nearly three years, the project resurfaced in 1997 with Broadway & 52nd, an album that earned favorable notices yet produced no comparable single. Even as the lineup came to consist primarily of Wilkinson and additional contributors, the band maintained a steady output of new recordings throughout the following decade, among them Questions in 2005 and Say What!? in 2007. A twentieth-anniversary reissue of Hand on the Torch arrived in 2013, accompanied by a bonus disc containing remixes and instrumental versions.