Us3: The Mix Is Boiling : The English group’s blend of jazz classics and rap is criticized by purists, but its ‘Hand on the Torch’ is bringing in new fans.

There’s no love lost between the English jazz-rap group Us3 and jazz purists.

“They simply hate us,” Us3’s Mel Simpson says of the hard-core jazz fans who fume at the band’s slightest tampering with the classics.

Best known for the single “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia),” Us3 is high on the purists’ hate list because its style incorporates sections of jazz classics from legendary Blue Note Records and uses that music as a background for rap. To the purists, Us3’s sampling, the foundation of its “Hand on the Torch” album, is pure desecration.

“One of them told me that what we’re doing is like tearing pages out of the Bible,” says Simpson, 35, who started the group with his partner Geoff Wilkinson, 32, two years ago.

Simpson wants to clear up a misconception.

“We’re jazz fans too--fierce jazz fans,” he insists. “Purists act like we have no love or respect for jazz. On the contrary, we love it and know it very, very well. The difference between us and purists is that we don’t think jazz should we protected and kept in a jar on the shelf. We like to see it evolve and blend with other musical forms.”

Like rap, which Simpson and Wilkinson both love.

“Jazz and hip-hop have so much in common--rap has its roots in scat-singing, which is a jazz form,” Simpson explains. “The rhythms of rap blend so well with the rhythms of jazz.”

Us3 certainly isn’t the first act to blend rap and jazz--Digable Planets, Greg Osby and Guru, among others, have done it too. But none sample the classics as extensively as Us3, which is on Blue Note, the jazz label that’s been around for more than 50 years.

“We have access to that entire catalogue--which must be driving the purists mad,” Simpson says with a laugh.

Despite purists’ opposition, the album is selling away. Tom Evered, Blue Note’s marketing vice president, reports that sales have topped 180,000--not bad for an album by an unheralded new group that doesn’t neatly fit any radio format.

“Jazz stations aren’t playing it, but it first got airplay on alternative radio and has since moved to (Top 40 and black) stations and done fairly well there,” Evered says. “This certainly isn’t the kind of hit we’re used to, but we figured the record had a good chance to catch on.”

When Blue Note first contacted Us3 in England early last year, it wasn’t to talk about a record contract. The group had used Blue Note music on an independent single, “The Band Played the Boogie,” without clearance.

“We wanted them to get the record off the streets,” Evered recalls. “But the record was so good we saw there was money to be made with this group, so we eventually signed them.”

A classically trained keyboard player, Simpson is also a producer who runs a London studio. He teamed with jazz-buff pal Wilkinson to make “The Band Played the Boogie” using an English rapper. For the Blue Note album they hired two Brooklyn rappers, Rahsaan and Cobie Powell, and Jamaica native Tukka Yoot.

“We put together the music, using both samples and original music, and they write their own raps,” Simpson says.

One aspect of the success of the album--also a hit in Japan and parts of Europe--particularly thrills Simpson.

“Blue Note people tell us that young music fans who weren’t really into jazz have been buying Blue Note classics because of our record,” he says. “We’re really doing our part to keep jazz alive--in spite of what the purists think.”