The Underground Network, New York, 1996. ‘Little Louie’ Vega takes to the turntables and begins to prepare an autumnal surprise. For the first couple of hours the mixmaster plays a string of classics from the seventies and eighties, casting the Sound Factory Bar's knowledgeable crowd under a magical spell. Next, he delivers a trademark mix of sweet songs and driving tracks, engineering a series of seemingly endless peaks for his definitively diverse dancers. And just when it appears that the point of maximum energy has been reached, the DJ looks up, smiles and interrupts the fading reflections of a garage diva with the celestial sound of a jazz guitar.

The radical juxtaposition induces screams of excitement and, in a gravity-defying development, Vega's disciples resist the bar. Freeform movements take centre stage, with the Wednesday night aficionados inventing angles that rewrite the rules of geometric possibility, and the acrobatics only intensify when the vocalist's smooth and silky scatting comes in, followed by the injunction: "You can do it, baby! You can do it, baby, yeah! You can do it, baby! You can do it, baby! Mmm-hmm!" Club kids start running up the walls.

When the beat kicks in I try to take a peak over the booth in order to make a mental note of a record that I simply have to find, but the barrier is too high and I can barely see Louie from such close range, let alone the record's small print. Fortunately an insider eventually spots my bobbing head and leans over. I ask him what Louie's playing and he replies, slowly, "Geooorrrge Bennnsonnn!" I'm destroyed. Yet another slab of vinyl from the Vega archives that I'll never find.

I don't bother to search for the record: not even when I make my weekly Friday-night pilgrimage to Dance Tracks, the downtown record store where, every now and again, Mr Vega buys a bit of vinyl. After all, I don't have a title and I can't sing. But a month or so later I walk into Joe Claussell and Stephan Prescott's East Third Street listening lounge and there, lining the right-hand wall, are rows and rows of sky blue records that carry the title 'You Can Do It (Baby)' by Nuyorican Soul featuring George Benson. Yes!

Nuyorican Soul, a name coined by Vega and India, was already familiar. ‘Little Louie’ Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez – also known as Masters at Work – had used it as an alias for 'The Nervous Track', a 1993 release that had permeated nightworld like few others, becoming a club anthem for a range of hip-hop, house and acid jazz DJs who otherwise protested that they shared nothing in common. A long three years later, MAW released their second Nuyorican exploration, the explosive and aptly named 'Mind Fluid', which flowed across generic boundaries as if they didn't exist, blowing everybody's brains in the process. The cover announced that the track was going to appear on a forthcoming Nuyorican Soul LP, and the Benson production proved that it was really happening.

The idea to develop a whole album around the Nuyorican Soul project came from the ubiquitous Gilles Peterson, head of the Talkin Loud label, which had already established a cutting edge reputation with acts such as Galliano, Incognito, Urban Species and the Young Disciples. Peterson had been slamming 'The Nervous Track' at his new club night, That's How It Is, which opened at the same time as the Nuyorican debut, and when the DJ-mogul heard that MAW were performing at the Southport Weekender he made his move.

"Kenny and I were playing and Gilles came up to us," remembers Louie. "He was talking into our ear while we were DJing. He said he'd love it if we came up with a whole album project for Nuyorican Soul." Not for the first time, a London enthusiast of the New York scene was generating lucrative work for a transatlantic cousin. "Gilles had this vision before anyone else," confirms Kenny. "He realised that if anybody in the dance sphere was capable of this then it was us."

Yet while the visionary initiative belonged to Peterson, it was Gonzalez and Vega who realised that the album ought to be more than an extended version of 'The Nervous Track'. "It's very rare for us to do the same thing twice," says Kenny. "You've got to move on and do something different." Which is putting it modestly given that, in this particular instance, something different involved the musical legends Roy Ayers, Jocelyn Brown, Vince Montana, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, George Benson and India featuring on a single album. "Nobody could understand what we were doing," says Gonzalez. "Everyone was saying it didn't make sense. But we had the whole record sequenced in our heads."

Jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers was the first to make his way into the studio. "Roy was one of the first inspirations for us," says Vega. "'Running Away', 'Mystic Voyage', 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' and 'Sweet Tears' – they were all really big releases." Having hummed along to his records for years, Vega finally met Ayers at the closing night of the Shelter in August 1993. Timmy Regisford and Kevin Hedge had invited the jazz-funk guru to perform and, luckily for MAW, guest DJ Joe Claussell rotated Nuyorican Soul's debut release for some twenty consecutive minutes. Seizing his opportunity, Vega approached Ayers and asked if he would be interested in contributing to the album. "He heard 'The Nervous Track' and saw everybody jumping to it," recalls Vega. "He said, 'Yeah! I like that vibe!' Let's talk about it!'"

They talked a year later and decided to redo 'Sweet Tears'. Once again, the Shelter played a formative role. "'Sweet Tears' was an album cut that had also come out as a B-side on an import," explains Vega. "I didn't hear the disco version until Timmy Regisford and Joe Claussell started to play it." The selection was perfect for Nuyorican Soul, with the versatile Ayers symbolising the MAW team's eclectic ambitions and the rarity of the groove providing the album with its first injection of old school education – one of the key aims of the project. "Kenny and I felt that people should hear 'Sweet Tears' again," says Louie, "and Roy loved the idea."

Establishing a working model that spanned the entire album, the basic track was pre-recorded at Kenny's house. "I laid the foundation to all the beats," explains Gonzalez. "Then I had a drummer play on top of them." The man-machine combination created the desired effect. "If you hear the album in a club it has the strength," says the beats maestro. "A live drummer was never going to sound that big. The engineers who recorded the old James Brown stuff used to get bottom out of their drum kits. Their kick drums sound like 808s. I don't know how the hell they used to do that, and I didn't want the album to sound tinny and small."

By the time Ayers hooked up with Gonzalez and Vega at François Kevorkian's Axis studio, 'Sweet Tears' was no longer item number one on the Nuyorican agenda. "We wanted to give something to the hip-hop kids as well as the club kids, so we wrote another little sample track," recalls Louie. "I played the bass and Kenny did this little sample groove. It had an 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' flavour." The producers asked Ayers if he would start scatting and the multitalented jazz-funkster obliged, singing three minutes worth of shabby-dabby-ya-yows alongside background vocalist Richard Shade before overlaying a set of shimmering vibes. With 'Roy's Scat' down pat, the sweetest of tears duly followed. "We did the slow one first and then the fast one," says Vega. "It was all done in one day. Roy was great in the studio."

But Gonzalez and Vega - specialists in creating the kind of connections that DJs love to explore, weren't finished. Taking their inspiration from Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff groundbreaking 'Back Stabbers', in which the instrumental intricacies of jazz were coupled with the swooping grandeur of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, they decided to introduce Ayers to Philadelphia by giving the subtle strings of 'Sweet Tears' an elevated position in the mix.

The Nuyorican Soul boys asked the Philadelphia-born producer and jazz devotee Vince Montana – who had played vibes on 'Back Stabbers' and went on to employ the PSO in his capacity as the head of the New York-based Salsoul Orchestra – to arrange and conduct the strings. "He did it the old school way," says Vega, "just writing down the music for every single part." Montana also reassembled the PSO for the occasion, bringing together fifteen violinists, six viola players and a flutist. "We had a lot of the musicians who used to play back in the days with Vince," Louie recalls. "It was amazing to watch because we were in Gamble and Huff's home, the place where 'Love Is the Message' was created. Vince was definitely excited."

Montana was also hired to perform on 'Runaway', having co-written, arranged and produced the 1977 original, which featured a flu-stricken Loleatta Holloway and appeared on the third Salsoul Orchestra album, Magic Journey. "Her voice was a little nasal," remembers Ken Cayre, the Salsoul boss, "but she still had the power and the knowledge to pull it off." Indeed by the end of the session Holloway was even beginning to enjoy herself. "She had to do an ad lib before Vince played the vibes, which had already been laid down on the track," says Cayre. "At the end of the ad lib she said, 'C'mon Vince, play your vibes!' So she really captured the feeling of the song."

'Runaway' received its comeback call some twenty years later when India, a long-term MAW accomplice and an integral part of the Nuyorican Soul project, was invited to pick her favourite song from the seventies. The selection was bold – and utterly justified. Bold because Holloway was the most celebrated underground diva of the disco era, with 'Runaway' one of her most popular performances. And utterly justified because, following the release of 'I Can't Get No Sleep', 'When You Touch Me', 'Love & Happiness (Yemaya Y Ochún)' and 'Voices in My Mind', India had left dance aficionados praying for more.

The remake managed to remain true to the spirit of the original while subtly injecting the Salsoul Orchestra – which had always been more notable for its 'soul' than its 'salsa' – with a dose of Nuyorican magic. "Vince did a spectacular solo on that record," Louie notes. "He gave us a flavour of what he did before and then he went somewhere else." India also welded the old with the new. "She gave her rendition of the song and at the end she went into this Spanish thing on top of the 'Runaway' groove," says Vega. "It was great. She took the original to another level."

Latin Jazz influences were set to permeate the album. Thanks to a spectacular string interlude from Montana, 'Runaway' segued seamlessly into a Latin rendition of Mark Levine's 'Shoshana' that showcased the late and deeply mourned Tito Puente on vibes, Hilton Ruiz on piano, Dave Valentin on flute, Marc Quinones on timbales, Richie Flores on congas/bongos, Luisito Quintero and Bobby Allende on percussion, David Sanchez on saxophone, Steve Turre on trombone, Charlie Sepulveda on trumpet and Gene Perez, a long-standing MAW secret weapon, on bass. Eddie Palmieri's 'Taita Caneme' and 'Habriendo El Dominante' intensified the ethnic exploration, and 'MAW Latin Blues' and 'Gotta New Life' – which were written by Gonzalez, Ruiz and Vega, and featured the above suspects plus Andy McCloud on bass, Tony Cintron on drums, Bashiri Johnson on percussion and Starvin' T. Cordero, another musician from the MAW stable, on congas – completed the cross-cultural Latin journey.

Of course Masters at Work had been exploring their Puerto Rican roots ever since Vega had invited Gonzalez to lay down some beats on his collaborative album with Marc Anthony, which featured Latin legends Palmieri and Puente. Nevertheless the Nuyorican Soul album marked a new level of engagement, and once again the unlikely key to this shift lay in the eclectic tents of the Southport Music Festival. "One night we were listening to 'Journey to the One' by Pharoah Saunders, and people were dancing to it, which fascinated us," Vega told journalist Carol Cooper. "We came back really worked up to do something like that and those two tunes, 'MAW Latin Blues' and 'Gotta New Life', both came out of that experience."

The Southport-Peterson coalition made another contribution in the form of 'I Am the Black Gold of the Sun', a Minnie Ripperton number from the days of the Rotary Connection. Along with Lisa Fischer, Brown had already performed the background scatting vocals on 'Gotta New Life', but Gonzalez and Vega knew that they wanted a more central role for the dance floor diva who had delivered hits such as 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', 'I'm Caught Up (In A One Night Love Affair)', 'Make It Last Forever', 'Moment of My Life' and 'Somebody Else's Guy'. Compared to these hits, 'Black Gold of the Sun' was unknown, but Peterson had fished the song out of nowhere and suggested that the Nuyorican producers integrate it into their dance retrospective.

"When we heard the Rotary Connection we were like, 'Wow, let's get Jocelyn in and have her sing really low,'" says Vega. "Everybody was used to hearing her wailing and everything, so we thought we'd do something different with her." Brown, who had already worked with Kenny and Louie on their debut LP, was captivated by the idea. "'Black Gold' was the strangest part on the whole album," she remembers. "Wow, baby! You were really going into an avant-garde, Thelonious Monk kind of sound, which was deep. I mean, why would you want to go there? But Louie and Kenny were feeling the groove of this song from years ago and once the music started we knew where we were going. It was like an automatic switch."

Nuyorican electricity flowed forth. The ex-Inner Life songstress wrote some additional verses, fleshing out the bare lyric line of the original. The mesmeric drums of Vidal Davis and the haunting string arrangement of Vince Montana retained the psychedelic soul of the Rotary Connection recording. And Lisa Fischer generated the final glitter via a stunning background arrangement that also featured Bennie Diggs, Paula McWilliams and Cindy Mizelle. "I definitely preferred the Nuyorican Soul version," says Brown. "It gave substance to the song. It gave a definition to what we were singing about."

'It's Alright, I Feel It!' was recorded the next day. "We wanted to write an uptempo song that wasn't house music," says Vega. "Kenny came up with this incredible syncopated rhythm that had a hip-hop breakbeat flavour, and I played a bass line around it." Jocelyn Brown and Bennie Diggs wrote the lyrics, with Brown creating the immortal 'It's Alright, I Feel It!' hook, and Terry Burrus provided the song with its irrepressible gospel drive. "If you want to take it to church, you've got to bring in Terry Burrus," notes Vega. "He played all the way down. It was great." Brown was equally blown away. "The recording session was magical," she remembers. "There was such a wonderful spirit. We were all in tears. It was a very magical night for us."

'I Am the Black Gold of the Sun' became the first song on the album and, reflecting the narrative sequence of the recording studio, 'It's Alright, I Feel It!' duly followed. On the surface, the juxtaposition didn't make sense: the pensive explorations of 'Black Gold' hardly prepared the listener for the joyous incantations of 'It's Alright'. But this was the Nuyorican Connection, not the Rotary Connection, and the search for concealed conversations lay at the epicentre of MAW's imaginative map. The underlying links – which went way beyond the album's beautiful strings-to-piano bridge – duly emerged. Featuring the same singer, the same background vocalists, the same drummer and even the same – if somewhat simplified – riff as 'Black Gold', 'It's Alright' tapped into a related, though not identical, sonic. And developing the spiritual meditations of 'Black Gold' into a transcendent and uninhibited celebration, 'It's Alright' also explored a similar, though not identical, thematic. The juxtaposition did make sense.

With the hip-hop-inflected 'Nautilus (Mawtilus)' and 'Jazzy Jeff's Theme' already wrapped up, the recording sessions were over. All that remained was for the Nuyorican Soul team to find a US equivalent of Talkin Loud, whose ambit was restricted to Europe. An 'American Gilles' emerged in the person of Maurice Bernstein, chief of the jazz-dance-party-turned-label Giant Step, which was part of the MCA empire. Bernstein was already an active member of the Masters at Work fan club, having asked Louie to remix the Groove Collective's 'Watchugot' in 1994, and he jumped at the opportunity to sign what he describes as a "brave musical statement".

Bernstein soon had a brainwave. The mini-mogul knew Tommy LiPuma, the head of GRP Records, which was also part of MCA, and LiPuma was tight with George Benson, who he had produced since the breakthrough Breezin' album in 1976, so why not ask LiPuma to invite the jazz guitarist into the Nuyorican studio? Bernstein set up a listening meeting with Benson and LiPuma, Gonzalez and Vega played the album, and the GRP duo gave them the thumbs up. "Tommy had already heard it and he kept telling George, 'You've got to hear these cats, they're doing some good stuff,'" remembers Louie. "By the end of the session he said, 'Alright, man. Let's find a day when we can try something.' We were so happy!"

Gonzalez and Vega recorded a track, found a gap in the Benson diary and spent hours preparing the studio so that everything would be perfect. However it quickly became clear that something was wrong. Not with Benson, who delivered four takes plus vocal hooks, but with the MAW demo. "It was a lot like 'The Nervous Track' and 'Mind Fluid'," says Gonzalez. "It was real dark, and when I heard him play I was like, 'Shit!' What he did just drew me in a whole different direction." Two takes and that was it. "I knew I had to redo everything. The original track was good, but it could have been that much better, and I wanted to make something that was going to have a crazy impact."

Vega laid down a fresh chord progression, Gonzalez punched out some new beats, and Benson's rich and silky takes were wrapped around the new structure. All that remained was for the MAW team to create the perfect intro. "We wanted to put a guitar solo at the top so that when people heard it they knew that it was George Benson playing," recalls Vega. "He came up with this incredible intro and then said that he was just kind of exercising! After that he was like, 'Alright, let me put it down for real!'" The recording made a huge impact. "Everybody was telling us that they hadn't heard George Benson play like that since he recorded "The World Is A Ghetto" says Vega. "He was working with these young people, we had this new flavour, and maybe he just vibed on it." The Sound Factory Bar and anyone with an open ear vibed on it, too.

The album was ready and duly notched up sales of two hundred thousand worldwide – although that was hardly the point. "We didn't do the album to make money," says Bernstein. "We did it because we wanted to respond to the fodder that was dominating the dance floor. It was a labour of love." The album was also an audiobiography for hundreds and hundreds of dance music aficionados – including Bernstein, who had arrived in New York a week before the closure of the Paradise Garage and was fired up by the club’s final parties. "Nuyorican Soul was a journey," says Bernstein. "The album showed how Louie and Kenny got to where they are musically. It's a testament to their musical roots, and this history rang true for a lot of people. It was very much influenced by the Garage."

The Larry Levan link is fascinating. Not because, somewhat obviously, songs such as 'It's Alright (I Feel It!)', 'I Am the Black Gold of the Sun', 'Runaway', 'Sweet Tears' and even 'You Can Do It (Baby)' would have slotted nicely into one of the Garage DJ's famously eclectic marathon sets, but because the Nuyorican Soul album represented the material fulfilment of one of his most ambitious yet unrealised dreams. "Larry's biggest idea was that all the singers and all the DJs should get together and do a triple album," remembers Brown, a regular Garage performer who used to cook supper for Levan. "The DJs would choose an artist to perform a song that they've always wanted to remix. I was like, "C'mon! That's so farfetched! And now Masters at Work have practically done it. Larry was right again!"

Unfortunately a handful of anonymous industry insiders sniped away at what they perceived to be the album's lack of originality, totally misunderstanding MAW's broader retrospective intent. After all, Nuyorican Soul wasn't just for the oldies: it was also designed for kids who were interested in experiencing dance music's equivalent to A Brief History of Time. "We were trying to create an album that would be an education for young people," says Vega. "There are a lot of people who don't know about this stuff." Even if this agenda is put to one side, it's notable that only seven of the seventeen tracks were covers, and most of these received some sort of significant reworking. "People are going to talk," reflects Gonzalez. "But there's not another album that comes close to it in terms of sound, the way it's put together, the way it's mixed, the way it flows. You name me another album that can touch you in so many different ways. There's nothing."

Crucially, Nuyorican Soul wasn't driven by nostalgia. Instead the album forged a powerful manifesto for the present, calling on ethnically and musically segregated clubs to come together, recognise their commonality and create a contemporary version of the melting pot practices that had become nightworld's unwritten constitution thanks to David Mancuso's Loft parties. Here, at long last, was an archaeology of sound that recognised the importance of a cross-cultural, non-static tradition, retaining a sense of its core while always being open to change. "We came together to make music and fulfil something that wasn't happening," concludes Brown. "We came together to unify the elders with the young ones, to unify the old knowledge with the new knowledge, to unify the respect of cultures, to unify so many things that make such a big difference to our day-to-day lives."

The coming together continued long after the release of the album. First in line was India, who took time out from her increasingly hectic Salsa career to record 'To Be In Love', a slow number that was written by Joey Lazzanzi and Vince Montana. The song had already appeared on India's collaborative album with Tito Puente, but Masters at Work wanted to inject the love song with a cool pop sensibility, and a dash of Nuyorican sophistication was provided courtesy of Mr Montana's vibes. The result was an epic recording that ran for just under thirteen minutes and selling forty thousand copies, establishing itself as one of MAW records best selling releases.

George Benson also wanted another dose of the KenLou treatment – although this time it was Gonzalez and Vega's turn to contribute to his album. Originally produced by Tommy LiPuma and Ricky Peterson, 'Song For My Brother' was transformed into an eleven-minute sensation, with Benson revisiting the studio in order to provide the MAW duo with some crucial material. "He was great," says Vega, remembering Benson's rich scatting and mesmeric guitar playing. "He didn't give us a million tracks and leave us to work it out. He gave us really good quality takes."

But who was Benson's brother? A blood sibling? A close friend? An African-American cousin? Or Luis Salinas, South America's answer to the GRP maestro, who had emerged as the next musician on MAW's collaborative wish list. "Tommy LiPuma always talked about this guy called Luis Salinas and I asked if we could record a tune together," recalls Louie. "He was like George Benson, but with a Spanish flavour." Once again the Nuyorican Soul duo composed a track before inviting Salinas to play his part and improvise a Spanish hook – 'Pienso En Ti (I Think of You)'. Luisito Quintero, who lugged a batch of South American wooden boxes into the studio and recorded an incendiary percussive set, rounded off the Latin circle.

The Nuyorican Soul network continued to generate ground-breaking work when Gilles Peterson asked Louie and Kenny to remix Roni Size's 'Watching Windows'. The Bristol artist had delivered a ferocious drum and bass version of 'It's Alright', and Vega and Gonzalez were only too happy to return the musical compliment. "I was amazed at what the early drum and bass kids were breaking, and then Roni Size and his crew took it into a whole new direction," says Gonzalez. "They had their own sound. The upright bass and live drums really opened me up. We saw them at a Giant Step party in New York and they were amazing."

'Watching Windows' was given the ultimate Nuyorican treatment. "The bass line reminded us of Latin music," says Gonzalez, "so we went that way instead of doing a house mix." The radical Nuyoricanstruction opened with Mind Fluid-style beats, a dreamy synth and a wavering vocal before shifting into a mellow tribal section that was drawn from the Salinas session. An extended Latin jazz groove followed, featuring Nelson Gonzalez on guitar, Albert Menendez on keyboards, Carlos Henriquez on bass and Luisito Quintero on timbales/percussion, and the stupendous fourteen-minute recording closed with a Salinas rumba. "In the end we just kept the vocal samples and sound effects from the original mix," says Vega. "We were inspired by a Fania All Stars album called Spanish Fever. Gilles went crazy when he heard it."

However MAW weren't only ruling the underground. The commercial success of Nuyorican Soul had attracted the attention of megastar Janet Jackson, who told MTV that India's storming rendition of 'Runaway', which had reached number one on the Billboard dance chart, was her favourite record. Jackson tracked down Gonzalez and Vega, who jumped at the chance to remix 'Go Deep', and this time they headed down the house highway, creating a deep and moody track that featured the flying flute of Dave Valentin. "He just tore it up," remembers Vega. "That record was huge at Shelter and Body & Soul."

As were MAW's powerful productions of BeBe Winans and Luther Vandross. Johnny 'D' DeMairo, a close friend who also happened to be the head of Henry Street Music and an Atlantic executive, came up with the suggestion of reworking Winans' gospel-oriented 'Thank You', and Kenny and Louie converted the song into one of the biggest house anthems of the nineties. The Masters ended up installing a completely new instrumental track – thus the production credit – and Winans re-recorded the vocals, bringing in a friend called Luther to arrange perform the backgrounds along with Cindy Mizelle, Paulette McWilliams, Brenda White and Fonzi Thornton.

Vandross was impressed and contacted the MAW office a couple of months later. Would Mr Vega and Mr Gonzalez be interested in doing some work on his new album? Kenny and Louie were stunned: all of a sudden they were being approached by top-of-the-notch artists who had no obvious connection with the dance market but wanted to receive the Masters treatment. In the studio, Vandross knew he had some explaining to do. "Wait a minute," he began, preparing his listeners for the burst of energy that was about to unfold. "Let's try something different! This is Luther with the Masters at Work..." The "something different" became 'Are You Using Me?' one of the grooviest and most uplifting MAW productions of the decade.

Yet for all of this new material, Gonzalez and Vega were still committed to excavating their past. Half way through the nineties they had reinterpreted Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's 'I Feel Love', providing the futuristic seventies sensation with a more organic, live feel. An opportunity to remix and reproduce Incognito's version of 'Always There' followed, with the boys calling in Jocelyn Brown and Vince Montana to lay down the vocals, vibes and strings. Atmosfear's 'Dancing In Outer Space', a 1979 underground smash, was next on the list of classic retrievals, with Gonzalez and Vega meticulously tightening up the shifting rhythms of the original before they added a fresh synthesiser and a heavier bass beat. And then came Louie and Kenny's special tribute to Fela Kuti, 'MAW Expensive Shit.'

The Masters had hoped to feature Fela Kuti on the Nuyorican Soul album, and when it became clear that the king of Afrobeat was too ill to appear, they persuaded Eddie Palmieri to perform 'Expensive Shit' – although the Latin pianist eventually decided he wanted to play the aforementioned 'Taita Caneme' and 'Habriendo El Dominante'. The Afrobeat hole was never filled and, following Kuti's untimely passing in August 1997, MAW decided to rework 'Expensive Shit', bringing in a trademark team of diverse and talented vocalists and musicians that included Wunmi, Kunle Ade, Mojisala Adeagbo, Folorunsho 'Foly' Kolade, Abiola Olaniyi '77', Luisito Quintero, Dave Valentin, John Scarpulla, Tony Kadleck and John Wheeler. "We knew that we couldn't top the original, but we had ideas" says Vega. "It was another epic."

If anything, Gonzalez and Vega were even more prolific between 1996-2000 than they had been during their first five years, producing and remixing hundreds of other records – too numerous to describe in detail, yet too important to go unmentioned. Highlights included: Ballistic Brothers 'Marching On', Black Magic 'Let It Go', Kenny Bobien 'Rise Above the Storm', Brand New Heavies 'Sometimes', Braxtons 'The Boss', Jerald Daemyon 'Summer Madness', Daft Punk 'Around the World', Eternal 'What'cha Gonna Do', Lisa Fisher 'When You're A Woman', 4 Hero 'Star Chasers', Freestyle Orchestra 'Odyssey', Funky People 'Funky People', Grooverider 'Rainbows of Colour', Gypsy Kings 'Ami Wa Wa', Hardrive 2000 ‘Never Forget’, Incognito 'Nights Over Egypt', India and Nuyorican Soul 'I Love the Nightlife', KenLou IV 'MAW War', KenLou V 'Thru the Skies', KenLou VI 'Bangin'', Kenny Lattimore 'Days Like This', Kele Le Roc ‘You Did It Good’, Lilliana 'Brazilian Beats', Lood featuring Donell Rush 'Shout-N-Out', Lil Louis ‘Give It Up’, Mel B 'I Want You Back', Monday Michiru ‘Sunshine After the Rain’, Stephanie Mills 'Latin Lover', Nu Colours 'Desire', Karen Ramirez ‘Troubled Girl’, Ruffneck 'Everybody Be Somebody', Sinnamon 'I Need You Now', Sunkids 'Rescue Me', Towa Tei 'Love Connection', Tony Touch ‘I Wonder Why’, Ultra Naté 'Divine Love' and Cunnie Williams ‘Spirit’.

Throughout all of this work and more, Kenny and Louie have leaned heavily on the engineering dexterity of Steve Barkan and Dave Darlington, as well as Jon Fausty. “They’re amazing talents,” says Vega. “They can make any sound that we want. They’re the key dudes.” Together they have retained a level of sophistication and integrity that is almost scary to contemplate, and these qualities were never more evident than in 'The Ghetto/El Barrio', a recent collaboration with George Benson that the Masters co-wrote ('El Barrio' only) alongside the jazz guitarist and co-produced with Tommy LiPuma. Featuring a familiar line-up that included Vidal Davis on drums, Carlos Henriquez on bass, Luisito Quintero on timbales/congas/percussion and Joe Sample on the Wurlitzer/B-3 organ/synthesisers, as well as the backing vocals of Claudia Acuna, Roy Ayers, Lisa Fischer, India and Richard Shade, the release revived Donny Hathaway's early seventies classic, injecting the original with a more overtly R&B feel before picking up the syncopated Latin rhythms in the second half of the cut. "It was just dream after dream coming true," says Vega. "Whenever George Benson needs us, we're there, because it's special when we get together."

Of course Hathaway has a special resonance for Kenny and Louie, who were growing up in the tightest of tight communities in Brooklyn and the Bronx at the time of the song's release. Nevertheless the MAW duo have long since left behind any traces of a ghetto mentality, displaying an insatiable appetite for different varieties of musical culture. Their hunger reminds me of the moment when Walter Gibbons, arguably the most influential remixer of the seventies, became the first DJ to be entrusted with a multitrack -– of Loleatta Holloway's 'Hit and Run'. "Walter just took it and said, 'Ooh, did you hear her do that!'" recalls Denise 'Sunshine' Chapman, Salsoul's promoter. "He was like a child in a candy store. There were so many choices." Masters at Work display a similarly refreshing enthusiasm. They, too, want to grab at everything, from Afrobeat to disco to dub to garage to hip hop to house to jazz to Latin to soul. The world has become their ghetto.

The Masters also deserve to be compared with Larry Levan, the most influential dance music practitioner of the eighties. Vega's four-and-a-half year residency at the Sound Factory Bar provided the dance music underground with a crucial lifeline given that the Shelter was about to close and Body & Soul had yet to open. And in terms of remixing and production, MAW's efforts in the nineties have surpassed those of Levan in the eighties. Like Levan, they have survived the cutthroat climate of the studio for a long ten years. Like Levan, they have moved from the world of remixing to the universe of production. And like Levan, they have revolutionised the way people listen to music, introducing a series of sounds that have become so entrenched in the dance psyche that it's hard to remember that nightworld didn't always sound like this.

Most importantly, 'Little Louie' Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez have maintained an elaborate and unswerving eclecticism at the heart of their work. As with Levan, this hybridity has nothing in common with the superficial skimming of multicultural tourists, whose level of engagement begins and ends with the casual flick of a download button. No, MAW's diversity is grounded in a set of serious musical roots, and it has evolved in conjunction with the kaleidoscopic populations of New York's night network. The Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage, the Shelter, the Sound Factory Bar, Body & Soul and Dance Ritual lie at the heart of this practice, and, more than any other remixing and production team, Masters at Work have provided this creative cultural community with a relentlessly varied soundtrack. Kenny and Louie have demonstrated that we can still dance together, even if today's increasingly factional market demands otherwise, and the wonderful music on this compilation embodies that vision. The first ten years have been extramawdinary, and we look forward to the next ten with huge anticipation.

Tim Lawrence (Tim Lawrence is writing Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture)

MAW Tributes

Gilles Peterson MAW still produce the best contemporary dance music. Their music is one step ahead of the rest in terms of beats, and arrangement-wise it's on a level with the best of the classic producers. I haven't come across another dance producer that can do both things so consistently. And whenever you think they've gone a little bit soft then Kenny 'Dope' drops some mad shit on the other side. They're still out on their own. When you see that the George Benson track is produced by Masters at Work and Tommy LiPuma you go, "Definitely!" You don't think, "Oh, big producer, little dance group!" You just go, "Two big producers!" That says it all really. And they're also unbeatable DJs. They're frightening to play alongside because they've got it totally down. They've got Latin, house, dance, disco, hip hop, funk, rare groove, jazz. They've got it all absolutely covered. That's what makes MAW the true Masters.

Jocelyn Brown Kenny and Louie are doing major work on an artistic side. These guys are DJs who have learned how to handle production. They're very successful and they're very good at what they do. Kenny and Louie have reached back into an era and have combined the classic sound with the new day groove. Their mixes take me where I want to go. They've got the spirit, and that's a very special gift. You can feel the bond between us. No matter where we are in the world, when we come together we know what we'll do: we'll make music to unify the elders with the young ones. I'm a part of these guys' lives and they're a part of mine. It's very special to me.

Frankie Knuckles Masters at Work. The name is so fitting for these two guys. Over the twenty-eight years I've been working as a DJ, the one thing I can say is that when the song is right I become one with it. Producers like Louie and Kenny make it possible for me to live vicariously through their musical production. Musical production -– wow! Now there's a phrase that's missing from so much of the DJ-bedroom producers' vocabulary. In an era when so much is taken away from the reality of music as I've always known it, it's so refreshing to know the quality of the music I receive from these two gentlemen will always be the best! It's not enough for me to call these guys my colleagues or fellow producers. They are my friends and true inspiration. So many people ask, 'Why do you continue to do this?' MAW is one of the reasons.

Leslie Doyle Louie and Kenny are the remixing pioneers of the Latin boom. A lot of people have tried to get away from their heritage, but Louie and Kenny are proud of it. They believe in their heritage, they draw from their heritage, they did everything they could to push it into the forefront, and now it's very popular. They remain really committed to music and using a variety of sounds, and they're very well respected amongst Latin musicians and Latin artists. Their longevity is very uncommon in an industry that is very flavour of the moment. Their contribution to the business has been tremendous.

Michael Weiss Kenny and Louie represent the best kind of musical partnership. They are two people with different personalities and different musical styles, and yet by working together they are able to create something completely unique and special. My respect for them is represented by the fact that I made their track, 'The Nervous Track', the signature track for our label, Nervous Records.

Johnny ‘D’ DeMairo If there's a Gamble and Huff team of our time as far as production is concerned then it's definitely Kenny and Louie. MAW have constantly broken down barriers with dance music and hip hop. They're totally diverse. The way they can do the hardest beats and then make a club anthem and then record a 'Black Gold of the Sun' is amazing. They've also always been ahead of the curve when it comes to carefully picking what they mix and who they work with. They've worked with Roy Ayers and Tito Puente. These legends don't work with anybody! A million people wanted to work with Tito Puente when he was alive and he was the nicest guy in the world, but he was very picky about his music. When I first got BeBe Winans together with them, it was the last thing BeBe wanted to do. He was really not into it at all. And he ended up falling in love with these guys. Because of that they met Luther, and they've also just done something with James Ingram that's totally outrageous. Remember, these artists have worked with the best. They're not going to go into the studio with some clown to do a track that's top five in the UK. They know the real deal. And for them to have such respect for Masters at Work – that's what it's all about.

Hisa Ishioka King Street's relationship with MAW dates back to the 'Soufflé H' and 'Vibe PM' projects. I was always overwhelmed by Louie and Kenny's innovative and experimental approach to dance music, and was keen to make them part of the label's sound. I've also been with Louie on the Inspirational Tour of Japanese clubs and, let me tell you, the vitality and energy that he produces is amazing.

Kenny Carpenter What can I say about MAW? If it weren't for Louie and Kenny I'd be out of this business. They never cease to inspire me with their consistent dedication to their craft, and they're such warm people, always remembering to give something back to their very loyal fans. Louie is not only one of my favourite and most humble friends, but he's also one of the best DJs I've ever heard. If I don't hear him or Frankie Knuckles play at least once a month, I lose my perception of what's hot and what's not. Thanks for all of the wonderful memories. I love you guys!

Todd Terry When I had the Masters at Work thing I was mainly doing freestyle beats. Kenny and Louie wanted to turn Masters at Work into a real house name, and they definitely changed it around for the better as far as putting songs to real music. They always had ear for bringing something different to the table as far as live musicians are concerned, and they're the only house guys that put on shows with a full band, which I think is very creative. They've taken dance to another level. 'Photograph of Mary' by Trey Lorenz was great. So was the Kenny Lattimore 'Days Like This' was excellent. They do great collaborations with Roy Ayers. And this new song with James Ingram is a real hot record. They definitely put a better style of music on the map.

Danny Krivit Masters at Work have been very important to me, both musically and as friends. They've made a lot of incredibly important records over the last ten years, and I really appreciate what they've contributed. There's a certain musical quality to everything they do, and their music is classy, too. I can't think of anybody else who has been so consistent. Their sound was way ahead of its time, and their older records still sound fresh today. Plus you can actually talk to the guys. They're real people.

Jody Watley Masters at Work are best known in the international dance community, but the label 'dance' limits their true genius. They are as diverse and as musical as a producer like Quincy Jones. Their approach always stems from the rare gems of the classics, be it R&B, Latin or jazz. They make you dance, but they never lose the soul.

Joey Carvello I was at Atlantic and we were using David Morales and Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley so much that all of our records started to sound alike. Then I found out about Louie and Kenny, and they immediately brought more of a live feel, more of a warmth, to our dance releases. I gave Louie his first album deal which he recorded with Marc Anthony. Kenny did a lot of work on that album, and the thing that really blew me away was this track called ‘Masters At Work’, which featured Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente, plus India on background vocals. It was just fantastic. Louie and Kenny were just launching themselves into a zone that nobody else was touching. And in my opinion that recording was the beginning of Nuyorican Soul.