Artist: Masters At Work
Genre(s):
R&B: Soul
Discography:
Nuyorican Sou
Year: 1997
Tracks: 14
The couple of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Cola" Gonzalez are the preeminent production/remix team in firm music, their nom de primp Masters at Work standing behind wads of the biggest club hits and remixes of their time. Effectively soundtracking the freewheeling American nightclub conniption of the nineties, Vega and Gonzalez blended their love of the disparate music advent from New York's underground clubs during the 1980s -- disco, the carefree garage scene, rising house and hip-hop styles, Latin freestyle -- to staggeringly influence the mainstream dance sound as it consolidated during the following decade. Besides their productions, remixes and appearances as Masters at Work, Vega and/or Gonzalez are as well involved in a skillful twelve other projects (including Nuyorican Soul, KenLou, the Bucketheads, and the Untouchables), many of which seem on the duo's have MAW Records judge.
Both Vega and Gonzalez were born to parents living in New York (the Bronx and Brooklyn, respectively), though of Puerto Rican inheritance. Consequently, both were former influenced by the Big Apple's prolific salsa scene during the '70s. (Vega's uncle is the celebrated salsa vocaliser Hector Lavoe, and his father played sax in Latin groups for over 30 years, while Gonzalez' father Hector Torres is besides a salsa expert.) During the early '80s, both were noted DJs around New York, though Vega immersed himself in family and freestyle piece Gonzalez entered the rap prospect. (The break up interests came in handy later, as dance fan Vega concentrated on songwriting and groove-making spell hip-hop head Gonzalez programmed beat generation and samples.) The mate were besides operative separately as producers, and Vega had already made a call for himself on the job on oodles of freestyle tracks and remixes by Nice & Smooth, Information Society and India. Gonzalez, working as a mobile DJ with a team vocation themselves the Masters at Work, founded his own Dope Wax Records and worked on production for all of the major New York dance labels: Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Cutting and Big Beat. In 1987, he loaned knocked out the key Masters at Work to Todd Terry for the 1987 single "All right Alright" (a immense club hit), then Terry returned the party favour one year later by introducing him to Vega.
After comparison notes, the geminate decided that compounding their wide range of influences could be an interesting experiment. They released their first Masters at Work single, the appropriately titled "Blood Vibes," on Cutting Records. Since Vega still had remixing contracts from his solo years, the pair off distinct to apply the MAW handling first to Debbie Gibson's "One Step Ahead." The dance community was reasonably appalled to find out a disposable pop creative person granted a respectable, even exciting, dance profound.
House production teams rarely released albums of their possess productions under their possess constitute, merely a Masters at Work LP appeared in 1993, on Cutting Records. The album assorted elderly singles with newer productions, and featured invitee slots for vocalists like Jocelyn Brown and India (the latter of whom is besides Vega's married woman) asset producers like Todd Terry and Maurice Joshua. The reputation of Vega and Gonzalez grew shortly and they standard pleas from to the highest degree of the major labels to chip in remixes, adding to their resume Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Madonna, St. Etienne, George Benson, Brand New Heavies, Lisa Stansfield, Deee-Lite, Everything But the Girl, Chic, Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry, Ce Ce Peniston and tons more.
Though Masters at Work were still a relatively metro phenomenon in 1993, simply the success of singles like "The Nervous Track" (as the Latin-vibed Nuyorican Soul), "Love and Happiness" (as River Ocean), "I Can't Get No Sleep" and "When You Touch Me" -- each with vocals by Vega's married woman, India -- caused their associated label Strictly Rhythm to give them their possess MAW Records subsidiary. The discofied Gonzalez side-project known as the Bucketheads reigned the dance charts during 1995-96 with iI number one singles, "The Bomb (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)" and "Got Myself Together."
In early 1997, the MAW duet issued the most high profile release of their career (at least in damage of the euphony organisation), a self-titled full-length as Nuyorican Soul. Recorded with remark from a host of nothingness and Latin past-masters (George IV Benson, Roy Ayers, Tito Puente, Charlie Sepulveda, Dave Valentin), the album spawned several ball club hits, including "Runaway" and "It's Alright, I Feel It." The next year, Masters at Work compiled some of their best productions for Masterworks: Essential KenLou House Mixes and Maw Records: The Compilation, Vol. 1. Two old age afterwards, BBE trumped both with the acquittance of the four-disc box Tenth Anniversary Collection, Pt. 1 (1990-1995). [Control Also: The Bucketheads, Nuyorican Soul]
