As said by Roy Ayers, consistency always ends up paying one day or another and this no doubt is the baddest thing we may wish to Louie Vega after such an amount of work for more than a decade. This said, stronger together looks like definitely applying to Louie's approach, reaching a new step with that strong liaison that he (and subsequently the MAW camp) and other pair of finest consisting of Kevin Hedge and Josh Milan aka Blaze have managed to develop. A liaison which has led to see them side by side on EOL's album, but also DJwise with Louie & Kevin's weekly residency at NYC club Cielo. And the weeks to come are to bring even more with the release of EOL's Extensions album awaited sometime in October, including some x-tra work in common. Not to mention future stage collaboration in the spirit of this live thing that they were supposed to have at Central Park Summer Stage this week-end as a support to Blaze's Underground Dance Artists United For Life benefit project. Enuff reasons explaining this long conversation that we've managed to have with Vega while in Paris at the starting day of the summer…

So Kevin (of Blaze) told us that this much sought after "Love Is On The Way" song is to be a part of your Extensions album…
As you may have noticed the EOL album has first been put out a bit more than a year ago in Japan before being released in the States last March then in Europe prior to the summer and we've managed to have a live tour with the band to support it. "Love is On The Way" is one of those new tracks to be added to remixes of some cuts from the EOL Extensions album due for imminent release in America.

Looks like this concept (including guest artists) somehow follows the footsteps of Nuyorican Soul album talking about which defunct Strictly Rhythm CEO Mark Finkelstein said to me that the biggest problem you had to face had been financial promowise, while being asked big amounts of money by your guests (Jocelyn Brown, George Benson, Tito Puente…) to perform.
You're damned right. We've only been able to do six big shows at the time which definitely wasn't enough to make big waves. As for Elements Of Life's concern, it's quite different as I've been working with mostly unknown singers which makes the things a lot easier to put them together and tour. And the great thing about this album is that it's not only geared towards dance but also towards world, jazz and latin music and this has allowed us to perform in many different places.

What about the reactions in America ?
They've been great. I mean when you see the band and the project, it's a full cycle thing. It's something that I've not only taken from production and DJing but also live.

Have you felt that you had to get out from this sort of house music labellized kind of stuff to reach a wider crowd ?
Not really. I mean everybody kinda knows that we've done a lot of work within the house music scene, but this album is just another side of me. I'm an all around producer ; I produce anything from African, jazz, latin, soul, R&B, whatever. This is just another project of mine, but the good thing is that it has given birth to a band on its own to interprete my album…
When I was with Nuyorican Soul, I guess I wasn't ready for it at the time and I was working with a lot of major artists. It wasn't an e-z thing to put together and as well I wasn't really ready to be on the stage with'em which isn't the case anymore today as the band gave a lot of confidence to do it. When we was rehearsing, they tod me they would feel complete with me on stage conducting. So you know, we went out and did the Blue Note in Japan as a part of a 16 gig tour last year, so we've been able to get acquintted with each other on stage so that it's very comfortable. This meaning that I've become a full member of the EOL live performance thing. If you look at what people like Tito Puente or Eddie Palmieri did in the past with their insturments conducting their bands at the same time, it gives you a lot of freedom and I feel like it's my future.

How do you do yourself ? I mean, do you act as a musician ?
I'm a keyboardist although I do not play with the band. Sometimes I interfer with DJing but I may also re-do one of my songs while giving the right instructions to the band rhythmically speaking. People are to be very surprised with it because it's something that comes naturally from me.

How is it doing for you with Roots (the residence that Louie has with Kevin Hedge at Cielo) ?
Roots is doing amazingly well. It's now a two and a half months into it (at the period we're speaking). It's still relatively young but we've already had visitors coming from all over the world, so people are really just finding out about it. Basically, we're just establishing the night but so far it's really encouraging.

Has it got the potential of say Body & Soul ?
It's got the potential of… Don't forget I was a big part of Underground Network before Body & Soul. It has lasted for five and a half years but it was solely a typical NYC night as opposed to what we're doing now which has a worldwide appeal due to the numerous travels that I have abroad.. So the good news is that we're going now to develop its own vibes, its own thang and make it one of those big nites in New York. I mean Dance Rituals which I'm having on my own once a month has been launched 6 years ago and it's still around. I saw Roots with Kevin as a way to combine elements of what we're doing musically and what we are as people and the people around us have that same energy. We wanna get new people and convert them into what we're doing. You know, it has a lot to do with the music we play, the music we do, the music our friends make. It has a lot to do with combining live organic elements with nu and ol'sounds. You know, it's just supposed to be a night of great music and energy to give you a positive feeling.

Have you had a listen to this RSL single ("The Mast" which would be one of our singles of the week in June) ?
Are you talking about this band Danny Krivit did an edit for ? I don't know their newie.

It's an amazing combination of live elements with a lot of spontaneity and freshness…
I would say that this is what we need. We need cpeople like that, as the scene faces a global lack of creativity. So groups coming out like that are very healthy for us.

So what do you think could be done for a better recognition of those underrated talents ? I mean, it sometines gives us the impression over there that many people have become like sort of fatalist, not even answering our single requests for basic infos. Gotta go back to this conversation which I've had with Kraze in Miami this year. He said to me that one of the major problems in the house community is that most of the DJ's, unlike hip hop, don't work with the artists… And for me, it was obvious this year that the Conf' was nothing but a DJ thang with no communication at all outside the DJ camp.
Well, being a regular to our events in Miami, you know how we've been doing ourselves for quite a while now. We look at Miami as an opportunity to show people what we're going to be into the following year. This is how last year we came with the Elements Of Life band and did the party. In the same time, we can't do anymore 500 promos mail out the way we did for years simply because mailing has become too expensive. So we've given 500 bags to 500 people from DJ's, artists, labels overseas or whoever who came and supported us. We've tried to take care about people we know who have this distinctive thing that might help us reaching some new step.

Well I wasn't talking about you for sure…
I know, but a lot of people don't have that same picture in mind. You've got to understand that some of these people and labels are young and still need experience. They go to Miami with the aim of being recognized.

Right, but what about the press ? Judging by what's currently on on a global scale, there are not so many people really devoted to this music we're talking about…
Well, I would say that what you have to do comes in sort of parallel to what we've done so far. Gotta develop your audience from a year to another, from a step to another. I myself started like just anybody else ; when I had to come up for free, I then would come up for free and that's what it takes. A lot of those DJ's nowadays figure out that they have to do one or two records so that they can travel all over the world and start making money ; that's all they wanna do but the question is how are they gonna last…

But inbetween, they're occupying the space as the hype lasts, so the thing doesn't work the way it should…
Well, the problem is that many people in this business haven't understood that they have to work together. That's what we've ended up doing with Blaze. I remember I had a long conversation with Kevin and I said to him : Let me put the band together, let me work it out then you guys've got to comin' perform ; this is the only way this is goin' to happen. This is the way we're gonna take it to the next level. We have to join forces, this is the only way this is going to happen and this makes a big difference.

Stronger together… That's exactly the way we're working here at IDMW.com…
I totally agree…

I mean, you give, you receive. What you have to do is simply send us your infos and we do our job taking care of the rest while spreading the word, often searching for pictures, illustrations that labels wouldn't have, making interviews on our own without the help of any label PR, etc. Our work is to have an eye, an ear at the right place about what's going on. This leading us to this thing that we've heard of in June seing you involved with Blaze which was supposedly due to happen this week-end…
That's a project which Kevin and Josh have been working on around their Underground Artists United For Life charity project in order to raise money for the research against AIDS. They've written a full album featuring people like Ultra Naté, Barbara Tucker, Arnold Jarvis, Kenny Bobien, etc and what they've created is a very positive LP. So they aprroached me about being the back up band with Elements Of Life and putting together the show and I thought it was a great idea to do that summer stage thing. West End King Street and MAW labels were to be involved as well, so that our respective audiences would have been melt together. You said stronger together, no doubt, you're right, those are the kind of things that we need to do.…

So tell us about this new Elements Of Life album.
The new EOL album is called Extensions. What I've done basically is call my friends to do remixes. As I've received them, I've also been sent brand new material which was great so I've decided to blend a bit of everything so that we have 7 to 8 remixes and 5 new songs on this. For instance "Sunshine"'s original version which is a 2 and a ½ minute thing has now been extended to a full song with 3 verses with the help of Josh and Joe Claussell has produced it, meanwhile Kenny (Dope) did a remix for "Cerca De Mi", Spinna "Better Day" and Glenn Underground "Mamy Mama", not to mention DJ Grégory and Frankie Feliciano. So it ended up being like a new album. And I've produced that new song for Blaze called "Love is On The Way"

Where there's Raùl (Midon) playing guitar…
Exactly. What I've done is simply incorporate the band. Everything you hear on the album is nobody different ; it's the whole Elements of Life work. I also redid an old tune from Salsoul called "1000 Finger Man" which used to be a Candido's thing at the time and I recorded a new song with Raùl called "Let The Children Play". It has a definitive dance feel although not being straight house music. A little bit like the previous one I should say.

Could it be that you have some further project with Raùl, like an album or ???
Well, we did a few cuts together, but the thing is that Raùl is signed to Blue Note and is working on an album project to be produced by Arif Mardin which should see the light sometime next year. Me anwhile, we're working on an album project with Anané displaying traditional music from her native country (Cabo Verde) and Kenny and I are also involved in a new project, so this should be an interesting year to come for all of us.

And you've also had this recent Choice album for London label Azuli…
What I've done this year is that I thought it was important to have more presence by the retailers. I had tons of opportunities which I hadn't been able to concretize because of me travelling all around the world. So I focussed on the albums that I really wanted to do. Dave (Piccioni) approached me last year with this idea of doing a Choice compilation, so it had been carefully planned out. I simply wanted to give the best illustration of the way I'm spinning when I'm mixing classics. It goes everywhere from The Clash to Eddie Grant. It wasn't about trying to find the rarest but once again to give you the right view of what I'm doing with classics. I've done this at my house with no special tricks ; the only thing I sometimes did was doing my own reedits. And when I'm spinning, I also like the musicians coming and jam like D'Angelo on "Spanish Joint"…

Ray Charles…
Oh man… He changed the whole thing for each of us. He's been the one who opened a lot of doors. We've gotta do a remix for Ray a long time ago that never came out, although it may have been released as a bootleg which I'm not really sure. I see Ray Charles the way I see Tito Puente.

Then on July 4, there wasn't only the celebration of your Independance Day but also the commemoration of Barry White's passing away a year ago…
Yeah. They doing an album on Def Soul Classics and I've been approached to mix a few of his classics so that's something I may be involved in.

I remember him saying to me : No matter what the thing you do, if it's a good thing, it can be redone any way you want it, as long as there are the basis and this is what he used to call the formula, the thing that you may instantly been identified to.
How couldn't I agree ? We're a little bit so within the MAW camp. I mean we have different styles but there's always that stamp we're dealing with. We always look for great songs, we always look for quality, not to mention the groove and once again, I definitely agree with that. When developping your stamp, you develop what you are and no matter how much music changes, we're always gonna be here, making the music that we make and how we wanna make it. It's not because music goes to some different directions that it's over for anybody. EOL's album, although not being a house collection, has my signature on it. It's like Nuyorican Soul with a more world edge to it. All my records are my experiences and what we've come to absorb throughout the years.

Including this recent Latin Verve Sounds album that you've done for the label…
That's another album Kenny and I have been involved in where we compiled ten songs for the late sixties/early seventies although it's not only latin. All kinds of artists are there from Dave Pikes, Herbie Mann, Cal Tjader, Eddie Palmieri an there's a real street edge to it. We picked a lot of tunes that feel real streety, tunes that we would play and we only remixed one song which is called "La Descarga Del Bobo" by Willie Bobo, meanwhile all the others are the original versions. As a matter of fact, we had a launch release party at Cielo last June with Kenny and I wanted it to be like a global tribute not only to Verve but also Fania Records.

The label where your late uncle (Hector Lavoe) was signed to…
Exactly and the "Kimbombo" on the EOL's album is a tribute to him and it was on Fania Records too…

This is a period that may people over here in Europe haven't necessarily heard of that much.
You would love it man, because they did a lot of experimental stuff. They combined latin stuff with soul, jazz. They put out a lot a different artists into Fania because Fania Allstar was a group of musicians. They were all stars on their own. They brought out Many Dibango, Bob James and that's a big influential period for me.

Guess you've also been influenced by films, right ?
Sure.

Say Scarface…
Hmmm, damned ! People like Martin Scorcese, Henry Mancini, James Williams. I only wish one day I could be involved in it as well. Because I feel that our music is also theatrical in a sense as well. There are stories that could be written about the records that we do.

Maybe a book also.
Yeah.

A possible future collab then…
Sure, let's think about it.

ELEMENTS OF LIFE Extensions LP (awaited in October on Vega Records)
More info : mawrecords.com