Geoff Wilkinson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Geoff Wilkinson is a London producer who founded the British jazz rap group Us3 in 1992. In the early 1990s he made two recordings under that name. The first was Where Will We Be in the 21st Century from 1990, a limited-edition white-label twelve-inch. With it he attracted the attention of the independent label Ninja Tune, which in 1991 resulted in The Band Played The Boogie by NW1, with the British rapper Born 2 B.

Music and breakthrough

For Us3, Wilkinson worked with the producer Mel Simpson. One of the demos from March 1992 was Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia), with the British trumpeter Gerard Presencer. The track used a sample of Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock. The name Us3 comes from Us Three, an album by Horace Parlan from 1960, produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. The debut album Hand on the Torch is accordingly built on samples from Blue Note tracks that Lion produced.

Influence

In 2014 Us3 was dormant, and Wilkinson turned to film music and library music. In 2025 Soundtrack appeared, an album with a cinematic mix of trap rhythms and big band arrangements, with tracks inspired by Gil Evans and Don Ellis. Wilkinson is one of the producers who brought jazz history to a new audience through sampling.

Listening

In School of Rock

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