Impromp2 : Press

IMPROMP2 IT IS WHAT IT IS
Rhythmicaljazzishrap duo release latest disc
By Kenya M Yarbrough

January 7, 2008

On this album and all preceding it, the duo has come to understand the sacrifice of making good music. They explained that they came to a point where they had to decide between making hit records or developing a career. They chose the latter.

"If you're gonna feed [audiences] junk, they're going to learn to like junk," Sean E Mac said, "but we refuse to bend on what we believe is good and keeping messages in our music."

*Impromptu: spontaneous, improvised, off-the-cuff. Impromp2: spontaneous, improvised, off-the-cuff. The musical duo Impromp2 definitely lives up to its name.

With the release of their fourth album the duo of Johnny "Johnny B" Britt and Sean "Sean E Mac" Thomas have unleashed another unabashed, distinctive and innovate disc of their trademarked multi-genre music.

That disc is titled "It Is What It Is," and it is "it" according to Impromp2 fans and soul-enriched rhythmic music lovers.

The stylings of Britt and Thomas were inspired by the final release of jazz legend Miles Davis. Davis' "Doo Bop" disc featured his trumpet riffs weaved throughout the lines of rap lyricists.

"I thought it was a great thing - the horn and the rapper," trumpeter Johnny B said. "So basically, I [interviewed] about 40 different rappers. I'm always into something different. I try to approach my horn differently; I try to approach my writing differently."

"I come from jazz, classical music, just different combinations, so it just kind of fell in my lap," he said of the idea to team up with a rapper. "I never really wanted to be in a group with anyone, I never thought of doing a group with anyone. But when I saw that, I knew that it could be something. He (Sean Thomas) was a rapper, but he was musical."

Britt came upon lyricists Thomas and his search was over. Impressed with Thomas' style and musical ties, the group quickly formed and just as quickly was signed to a major record deal. Motown was thoroughly intrigued with the blended sound of Impromp2.

"We wanted to do something different, but cool," Britt explained. "It was Miles' idea, but it was nothing like what Miles did. I just took it and ran with it. And of course, we do live music. That music was [sampled] and it was great, but there's nothing like live music."

Thomas added: "It's nothing like what we're doing now. It was something close and similar, but Miles was doing hip-hop jazz. It was a rapper on top of some jazz stuff. This is a lot more intricate, a lot more involved and mixed with jazz, R&B, and hip-hop."

The deal with Motown morphed into a deal with the jazz arm MoJazz, in part because Impromp2's sound couldn't quite be assigned. That sound is still yet to be accurately corralled or definitively named. What does the group call it? What is it really? ? "It is what it is." Britt stated, alluding to the so-named new disc and the fact that the duo has constantly faced the challenge that there is no consumer category for them.

"That has been a problem," Thomas agreed. "On radio or anything like that, it was hard - virtually impossible - for us to fit in anywhere. Everyone liked it, but there was not enough of any one thing for us to call home in any one specific genre of music. We knew that, but we wouldn't change that. We'll wait for the industry to adapt to what we're doing. There's no category. It is what it is. It's just good music."

Britt agreed and grumble about how and why they aren't categorized.

"It's funny when we sit back and listen to what other people call what we've developed as Impromp2, but I just don't think it's all that complicated," he said. "I know what real jazz is, I know how to play real jazz, but that's not what Impromp2 is. I think that America has been so commercialized with smooth jazz - and I'm not knocking smooth jazz - but that's not jazz."

The two both agreed that the mutation of music has left their mix of funk, jazz, soul, and hip-hop as the sound with no name. Impromp2 music includes those elements, but is not just hip-hop and not just R&B, at least not as R&B exists today, the two said. They explained that in another time, there would be no question as to what their music would be considered.

"If we came up back in the day with Earth Wind & Fire, we would be right in there," Thomas said. "We would be an R&B group. The only reason people categorize us as jazz is because there's no more live music in R&B anymore."

"[We have] a warm sound," Britt described, but because [we don't have] drum machines, it's not necessarily edgy enough."

That's definitely in the ear of the beholder. Improm2's "It Is What It Is" can easily be called edgy, as well as all the adjectives that accompany it. The disc features an all-star cast of guests including Take 6, Boney James, and George Duke, among others, and includes an exciting cover of Marvin Gaye's classic "You Sure Love to Ball."

On this album and all preceding it, the duo has come to understand the sacrifice of making good music. They explained that they came to a point where they had to decide between making hit records or developing a career. They chose the latter.

"If you're gonna feed [audiences] junk, they're going to learn to like junk," Thomas said, "but we refuse to bend on what we believe is good and keeping messages in our music."

For instance, the first single from the album, "You're A Queen," takes on the negative female stereotypes that seem to permeate urban music.

"We've chosen to take a serious national stand on something that's near and dear to our hearts - our sisters, our mothers, our daughters," Britt said. "This song is political. All of the profanity and the way the women are portrayed in videos and music should stop. We know that there's been a lot of discussion about it, but we're here to take a serious stand on the issue."

"Johnny and I were at the studio one night and we had our kids with us at the record label owner's house. His wife, who is white, was fixing us lunch and my daughter came up to her and said, 'Guess what, I'm a queen.' And that really touched me," Thomas said. "As you give people certain things, it all gets in your spirit. It rubs off on you whether it be good or bad. So it's imperative that we start feeding these young people something that makes them feel better about themselves and gives them a more positive outlook."

Encouraging and even inspirational are just a few more of the words that describe the duo - and make categorizing them so difficult. Just as the group has found, when you're looking for them in the record bins, your search may be a labored one. Britt recalled that they would find their records in the rap section, in the R&B section, and in the jazz section - though the two protest that categorizing.

"People would come up and say, 'You're my favorite jazz group.' And we used to say, 'We're not jazz, we're not jazz.'" Thomas said. "Then, for this album, we said, 'F'get it. We are whatever they call us. Whatever you want us to be, that's what it is. We're not gong to fight it. We're just going to make the music that we like."