New Release: Louie Vega Starring … XXVIII
What Happens When a House Music Legend Makes an Album With All His Friends?
Tasteful recombination in art requires one to understand what art is available and what individual pieces of art are appropriate to recombine. Bricolage is the process in which an artist removes an object from its environment, strips it of its meaning and places it alongside other objects in a completely new environment.
Louie Vega’s latest album, Louie Vega Starring… XXVIII is a dual-disc conceptual record featuring over 25 artists on 28 different songs. Yes, you read that right! The record is Louie Vega’s first solo album ever and a contender for his magnum opus, “This body of work is a masterpiece that will be party of my legacy. I see it up there on the same high shelf with albums like Nuyorican Soul, Elements of Life, and Masters at Work,” adds Louie.
Describing his artistic process, “The album came together naturally, it was a growing process. It was like planting a tree, each branch represented an artist, a sound, a groove. The entire process happened within a few years. It started with a few songs and then this past year, I was in a creative state and the music happened back to back. As I travelled and toured, I met artists on the road and would record with them a few weeks later. The experience with the artists on the album was magical; they are all so talented and very unique and have their own special quality.”
There are only a few times in an artist’s career when their sonic pallet and relationships with other artists reach a level where true magic can happen. After 30 years in music, Vega has reached a special and unmatched point in his career.
He knows where all of the world’s sounds live and hide. He has relationships with the owners of those sounds and understands what they represent. This album is the latest testament to Louie’s growing legacy as a master bricoleur. By bringing together the diverse genres of house, funk, latin soul and gospel, Louie Vega created a record filled with positive vibes.
Like a fine bottle of wine, the album’s ingredients and their interactions with each other come to the light upon pressing play. Listeners can expect notes of Afro & Latin and pure house infused with funk, gospel, Caribbean, jazz, r&b, soul. All the ingredients for an amazing global party. Each song is uniquely crafted to represent a different emotion, energy or experience. Their melange with Louie Vega’s timeless music production is the album’s true treat, “Today’s listener wants to feel good and that’s exactly what our songs and tracks do. We celebrate the gift of love, art and music,” adds Vega.
Followers of his illustrious career will find the album unveils a completely new side of the legendary artist; that of a sound chemist. Louie explains, “My inspirations came from various visits around the world and experiences in life. As far as the album’s sounds, I revisited lots of R&B, soul, gospel, nu jazz, even some disco, all within the backdrop of house music, took it back to the artist and song tailoring”.
Here’s a complete list of the chemist’s preferred elements for this album:
The group Funkadelic & the Iconic George Clinton, The 3 Winans Brothers and The Clark Sisters, Jocelyn Brown, Nick Monaco & Soul Clap, N’Dea Davenport, Lisa Fischer, Cindy Mizelle, Anane Vega, Monique Bingham, Caron Wheeler, Josh Milan, Bucie, Tony Momrelle, Kaylow, Vikter Duplaix, Cassio Ware, Adeva, Covertion & Leroy Burgess, Kenny Bobien, Zara McFarlane, Luis Salinas, Roberto Roena, Diviniti and Byron Stingily.
The delivered sampling of featured artists on Louie Vega Starring… is one for the record books and a must for any music aficionado. Be sure to pick up the album at all digital outlets, and a special cd & vinyl package at participating distributors.
