Us3 - The Party Band At A Jazz Festival

The story of how Us3 created the trip-pop classic Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) is the stuff of legend; Promethean producers pinch magical sounds from the secret vaults of Blue Note. EMI's devils, resplendent in fearsome and warlike garb, drag said DJs to the lowest flaming pit of hell with the intention of exacting fit punishment. 'We are henceforth doomed for our arrogant and (most Aesopian) refusal to bow before authority,' claimeth one. 'Tru dat,' came swift the reply. The producers stood face to talon with the wrathful creatures and, through righteous and silver-tongued speech, the devils were eloquently beguiled to unfold the secrets of all Blue Note unto them. Geoff Wilkinson and Mel Simpson henceforth celebrated their triumph in song and scripture. Thus they created Cantaloop, much rejoicing was had and even EMI shouted 'hooray.' The tale told, here endeth the lesson, 'nuff said.

But after those shenanigans, Us3 disappeared somewhere, shuffling off into obscurity, occasionally storming the British charts with pop gems like You Can't Hold Me Down, but mostly remaining out of sight. "We've never really been hugely successful in Britain... they don't really know what to make of us," Geoff tells us, adding that one of their few dates outside of London a few years back was in the inauspicious confines of King Tuts, where one imagines that the nine-piece band outnumbered the audience. There's good reason for this; their particular sound can become pretty stale, and aside from You Can't Hold Me Down, the general critical consensus about follow-up albums like Hand On The Torch was 'must try harder'. Maybe it was Madlib re-contextualising that iconic back catalogue on Blue Note Invasion, but after one dose of jazz inflected hip-hop, it seemed a little like re-treading old ground.

Us3, now minus Simpson, attempted to remain fresh, forgoing sampling in favour of live musicians and creating the originally-titled Us3 records to release their work. 2005's Schizophonic saw a solidified line-up of live musicians, something which Wilkinson believes has re-invigorated the band. "This was the first time we'd recorded together after playing live... we did this album off the back of the Schizophonic tour, feeding off the energy of that," he states. Of course, as Wilkinson reminds us, "We've been using live musicians in favour of sampling for a long time now," and surprisingly Us3 manage to drop Hancock-esque horn riffs without sounding too much like the dreaded 'white man's jazz' that became so incredibly boring.

New album Say What showcases the same style of slick, jazzy hip-hop Us3 have made their own, albeit with a poppier sheen and a predilection for more RnB-styled vocals. Former Scratch Pervert First Rate reprises his role as turntablist for Us3, and his presence often invigorates tracks, adding an unpredictable element; the kind of 'live energy' Wilkinson seems to describe. ABC sees a pretty cool scratching solo that lifts it from mediocrity, and Wilkinson is enthused about his presence in the band, seeing him as important as any of the other players. "We just did a jazz festival in Norway," he says, "and when I introduced the band at the end, I introduced him as a jazz musician. Which admittedly got a few titters from the crowd."

After a hundred legal and technical wrangles, Wilkinson's project seems to have finally found a home; within the jazz community, but with a little something else. "They like us at jazz festivals – we're kinda the party band they put on at the end!"