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Snap, Crackle & Bop!
Us3
Label: Self-Produced
Released: 2026
Views: 171
Tracks
Cool Cat, One Step Ahead, Stand Up, Have A Great Day, Stay Longer, Walk Away, Catch The Vibe, I Like To Party, We Like That, You Got Me Open, Breathe, The Garden Of Forking Paths.
Personnel
Us3
band / ensemble / orchestra
Geoff Wilkinson
producer
MC Akil Dasan
vocals
Ed Jones
saxophone, tenor
Bryan Corbett
trumpet
Mike Gorman
organ, Hammond B3Additional Personnel / Information
DJ Mr Thing credited with scratching on Walk Away
Album Description
I think I first came across the music of Geoff Wilkinson on a production library disc I used in a corporate video I was directing which called for a funky hip hop style underscore. I was unaware at the time of his involvement with Blue Note Records with his group Us3 which had a smash hit with a remix and sample of Herbie Hancock’s “Canteloupe Island” under the title “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” which sold 2.5 million copies in the 90s. After a break Wilkinson returned to Us3 in 2025 with an instrumental album “Soundtrack”.
This 2026 album reprises the earlier rap over jazz funk beats with Wilkinson mixing and Akil Dasan as vocalist in a reprise of a collaboration they enjoyed in the 90s. Alongside them are Ed Jones on saxophones and flute, Bryan Corbett on trumpet, flugel and trombone and Mike Gorman on a variety of keyboards. The opening “Cool Cat” is a funky number over a rollicking Hammond organ base bringing back thoughts of Jimmy Smith and England’s Georgie Fame who, of course, had his own hit with “Cool Cat Blues” a rather different tune. Indeed Jimmy Smith gets a name check in the lyrics which focus on current cats aspiring to 70s cool culture before being told “You ain’t all that”. It’s a very catchy opener to an album that provides a lot of different moods.
“One Step Ahead” has a much cooler vibe where Dasan exhorts us to be better people and care for others following a brassy introduction and with fluent solos from trumpet and electric piano. Throughout the 12 tracks Wilkinson leaves room for some excellent jazz licks from the alumni. Ed Jones gets an extended mellow intro on “Stand Up”, and exchanges bars with Bryan Corbett to close out the third single released from the album, the optimistic “Have a Great Day”. Jones features the flute on “Stay Longer” an introspective love song.
The sixth track “Walk Away” is the most straight ahead jazzy. It’s mostly instrumental with the words Walk Away spoken occasionally by DJ Mr Thing who is also credited with scratching. It’s a lyrical piece with Ed Jones’ best opportunities to show off his saxophone chops.
An abrupt change comes with “Catch the Vibe” a very hip-hop track with some impressive instrumental interplay and a lyric that includes a verse in Spanish. It leads well into the next track “I Like to Party” something that is apparent throughout the album but especially here. These guys do like to party and while the studio recording and production is great in conveying the atmosphere, I’d like to hear this music played live.
The two instrumental tracks are credited to Geoff Wilkinson all the others jointly to Wilkinson and Akil Dasan Baker. The lyrics to the song “We Like That” contains one of my favourite rhymes ever:
The groove hits you and goes down like jiu jitsu
Pride comes before the fall like Ceausescu
in a track that opens with funky Hammond and brass and extols the virtues of peace making over peace keeping. There’s quite a lot of positive politics (if you are somewhat to the left of centre) in this album. Two more rap tracks and a final instrumental “The Garden of Forking Paths” conclude the album. This ends with a couple of minutes of classic acid jazz from Jones and Corbett.
From my initial uncertainty of what I’d signed up for when I agreed to review this album, it grew on me over a few listenings. It has some excellent rap, some great jazz and is an open invitation to dance. There’s an overall inventiveness and creativity that I really enjoyed. It does what it says: it snaps, it crackles and there’s bop!
