Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Us3: Broadway & 52nd

273

Us3: Broadway & 52nd

Us3: Broadway & 52nd
It's hard to imagine a more hallowed jazz address than broadway & 52nd , the site of the original Birdland.

In 1993, British underground DJ turned hip-hop producer Geoff Wilkinson shook up the jazz world with Hand On The Torch, a collection of hip-hop and rap tunes based on samples from classic Blue Note recordings, not only with the label's blessing, but released by Blue Note. "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" went top ten, and exposed Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" to an entirely new, for the most part young and urban, audience. Torch also included samples of funky Blue Note jams by Grant Green, Big John Patton, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk, albeit as hip-hop rhythm beds for solos by studio musicians and the lyrical rappers.

"The Wall Street Journal" called Us3's debut "the best extended marriage of jazz and rap to date". Torch helped ignite the "what is jazz" debate anew; it was strongly influenced by jazz, or perhaps more accurately, it used jazz. But a lot of people seemed to feel that it wasn't really jazz. Jazz or not, Torch became Blue Note's best-selling jazz album ever. Ever.

On broadway & 52nd, Wilkinson returns sans original partner Mel Simpson, with new rappers (KCB and Shabaam), and with many less samples but many more musicians: trombonist Dennis Rollins, guitarist Tony Remy and saxophonists Steve Williamson and Ed Jones return from Torch, with new additions saxophonist Mike Williams, melodica player Jonathon Gee, and keyboardists Tim Vine and Gareth Williams. There are only three credited samples, including Horace Silver's "Sayonara Blues" in "Caught Up In A Struggle," and Wayne Shorter's "Indian Song" in "Snakes". "I've gone deeper into Blue Note's back catalog to open a point of access for jazz for people who might not know where to start on their own," he explains. "I've used more obscure tunes to try to push people further into it."

broadway & 52nd sounds like the logical next step from Torch ; in fact, the funky first single "Come On Everybody (Get Down)" sounds a little TOO much like a simple second helping of "Cantaloop." "Nowadays" lazily bumps along, nudged by the swivel-hipped sound of Rollins' trombone (sputtering and swerving like Fred Wesley and the JBs after way too much wine); "Grand Groove" is precisely that, a hot rhythmic rack, from which hangs Gherardo Catanzaro's tasty piano, but little else of musical consequence. "I Want Your Body" is a muscular yet supple workout, appropriate for either the dancefloor or the bedroom (or both).

Does it really matter to you if "I Want Your Body" is smooth, genuinely first-rate R'n'B but not jazz; certainly jazz-based, but not jazz at all? How much does it matter to you if broadway & 52nd is good music, but not necessarily jazz? Those are the questions raised by Us3, questions that you're not going to be able to answer by either writing or reading a review of this CD, questions that you're going to have to answer for yourself.

Personnel

Us3
band / ensemble / orchestra

Album information

Title: Broadway & 52nd | Year Released: 1997 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.