Hand on the Torch was the debut album for the jazz-rap group Us3

US3

Us3 is a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by...

. It received much attention because of its mix of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and rap

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

, using live jazz musicians. All sample

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

s used on the album are from old Blue Note

Blue note

In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...

 classics: the most famous being Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

's "Cantaloupe Island

Cantaloupe Island

Cantaloupe Island is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded on his 1964 album Empyrean Isles. during his early years as one of the members of Miles Davis '60s quintet. It is one of the very first examples of a modal jazz composition set to a funky beat...

", used on the track "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)".

In 2003 The Ultimate Hand on the Torch was released, including many of the songs used as sampling material on Hand on the Torch.

Tracks

1. "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson/Hancock)
2. "I Got it Goin' On" (Powell/Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson/Wilson)
3. "Different Rhythms Different People" (Simpson/Wilkinson)
4. "It's Like That" (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Parker/Rollins)
5. "Just Another Brother" (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Hubbard)
6. "Cruisin'" (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson)
7. "I Go To Work" (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Monk)
8. "Tukka Yoot's Riddim" (Taylor/Simpson/Wilkinson/Covay/Cropper)
9. "Knowledge of Self" (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson)
10. "Lazy Day" (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Sample)
11. "Eleven Long Years" (Taylor/Simpson/Wilkinson/Silver/Hancock)
12. "Make Tracks" (Powell/Simpson/Wilkinson/Silver/Pearson)
13. "The Darkside" (Kelly/Simpson/Wilkinson/Mizell)

Sampling

Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) features samples from "Cantaloupe Island" as performed by Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, and the introduction from "A Night in Birdland, Vol. 1" by Art Blakey Quintet

Art Blakey

Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....

.

I Got It Goin' On features a sample from "Ronnie's Bonnie" as performed by Reuben Wilson

Reuben Wilson

Reuben Wilson is a jazz organist. He performs soul jazz and acid jazz, and is best known for his title track "Got To Get Your Own"He was born in Mounds, Oklahoma and his family moved to Pasadena when he was 5....

.

Different Rhythms Different People features vocal samples from "Art Blakey's Comment On Ritual" and "At The Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2" by The Jazz Messengers.

It's Like That features samples from "Alfie's Theme" as performed by Big John Patton and "Cool Blues" as performed by Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...

.

Just Another Brother features samples from "Crisis" as performed by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

I Go To Work features samples from "Straight No Chaser" as performed by Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

.

Tukka Yoot's Riddim features samples from "Sookie Sookie" as performed by Grant Green

Grant Green

Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....

.

Lazy Day features a sample from "Goin' Down South" as performed by Bobby Hutcherson

Bobby Hutcherson

Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...

.

Eleven Long Years features samples from "Song For My Father" as performed by Horace Silver

Horace Silver

Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

 and "Blind Man, Blind Man" as performed by Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

.

Make Tracks features samples from "Filthy McNasty" as performed by Horace Silver

Horace Silver

Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....

 and "Jeannine" as performed by Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

.

The Darkside features a sample from "Steppin' Into Tomorrow" as performed by Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

.

Musicians

Rap - Rahsaan and Kobie Powell

Kobie Powell

Kobie Powell is an actor who voices the puppet character of Pixel in the children's show LazyTown, currently airing on Nick Jr. in the United States and on various international television networks. Powell is known in the Nickelodeon Company as "the Voice of Nick Jr," recording almost 80 percent...

 (guest Tukka Yoot on Tukka Yoot's Riddim)

Trumpet - Gerard Presencer

Gerard Presencer

Gerard Presencer is an English jazz trumpeter who has also made a name as a session player in pop-music contexts, and as a jazz educator. He currently lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Biography :...

Trombone - Dennis Rollins

Dennis Rollins

Dennis Rollins is a British jazz trombonist, the founder and bandleader of BadBone and Co.Rollins was born in Birmingham, of Jamaican parents, and brought up in Bentley, Doncaster and attended Don Valley High School...

Tenor Sax - Mike Smith

Mike Smith (saxophonist)

Mike Smith is an English musician. He is an arranger, composer, conductor, studio musician, and keyboardist, but specializes in saxophone.Smith studied jazz and contemporary music at the Leeds College of Music, from which he graduated in 1988...

Soprano and Tenor Sax - Ed Jones

Guitar - Tony Remy

Piano - Matt Cooper