Masters At Work

The production and remix partnership of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez rose to prominence in house music under the Masters at Work banner, generating scores of major club tracks and reworkings during their peak years. By shaping the soundtrack for American nightclubs throughout the 1990s, the pair fused influences drawn from New York’s 1980s underground—disco, the expansive garage movement, nascent house, hip-hop, and Latin freestyle—thereby steering the mainstream dance aesthetic that took shape in the decade that followed. Beyond their core output as Masters at Work, Vega and Gonzalez maintain involvement in roughly a dozen additional endeavors, among them Nuyorican Soul, KenLou, the Bucketheads, and the Untouchables, many of which surface on their own MAW Records imprint.

Although born in New York—Vega in the Bronx and Gonzalez in Brooklyn—both trace their heritage to Puerto Rico, which exposed them at an early age to the city’s thriving salsa circuit of the 1970s. Vega’s uncle, the celebrated salsa vocalist Hector Lavoe, and his father, who performed saxophone in Latin ensembles for more than three decades, further deepened these roots, as did Gonzalez’s father, Hector Torres, himself a noted salsa authority. By the opening years of the 1980s each had established himself as a New York DJ, Vega gravitating toward house and freestyle while Gonzalez explored the rap scene. Their contrasting tastes later proved complementary, with dance-oriented Vega concentrating on songwriting and grooves while hip-hop-focused Gonzalez handled beat programming and sampling. Working independently as producers, Vega had already built recognition through dozens of freestyle productions and remixes for Nice & Smooth, Information Society, and India. Gonzalez, meanwhile, operated a mobile DJ outfit under the Masters at Work name, launched Dope Wax Records, and supplied productions to every major New York dance label—Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Cutting, and Big Beat. In 1987 he lent the Masters at Work moniker to Todd Terry for the club hit “Alright Alright,” and Terry returned the courtesy one year later by arranging an introduction to Vega.

After sharing perspectives, the two concluded that merging their broad influences offered a promising experiment and issued their first Masters at Work single, the fittingly named “Blood Vibes,” on Cutting Records. Retaining remix commitments from Vega’s solo period, they next applied the MAW approach to Debbie Gibson’s “One Step Ahead,” surprising the dance community with a credible, even dynamic, treatment of a pop track. Although house production teams seldom released albums of original material under their own name, Masters at Work delivered an LP in 1993 on Cutting Records that combined earlier singles with fresh recordings and included vocal contributions from Jocelyn Brown and India—Vega’s wife—alongside production input from Todd Terry and Maurice Joshua. Their stature increased swiftly, prompting major labels to commission remixes for 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 dozens more.

Still operating largely underground in 1993, Masters at Work achieved wider notice through singles such as “The Nervous Track” under the Latin-inflected Nuyorican Soul alias, “Love and Happiness” as River Ocean, “I Can’t Get No Sleep,” and “When You Touch Me,” each featuring vocals by Vega’s wife, India. These successes led Strictly Rhythm to create the MAW Records subsidiary for the duo. Gonzalez’s discofied side project the Bucketheads topped the dance charts in 1995–1996 with two number-one singles, “The Bomb (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)” and “Got Myself Together.”

Early in 1997 the pair released their highest-profile project to that point, a self-titled Nuyorican Soul album recorded with assistance from jazz and Latin veterans George Benson, Roy Ayers, Tito Puente, Charlie Sepulveda, and Dave Valentin. The set yielded club successes including “Runaway” and “It’s Alright, I Feel It.” The following year Masters at Work assembled highlights on Masterworks: Essential KenLou House Mixes and MAW Records: The Compilation, Vol. 1. Two years afterward BBE issued the four-disc box Tenth Anniversary Collection, Pt. 1 (1990-1995). [See also: The Bucketheads, Nuyorican Soul.] ~ John Bush