DT664 – Louie Vega

Grammy winner and 6x nominee, with a career spanning over 20 years. Louie Vega is a mega force in the House Music industry with no signs of slowing down. A leader in global dance music, Louie Vega has painted an award-winning career from a palette mixed with everything from house, salsa and afro-beat, to jazz, hip hop, gospel and soul.

What distinguishes the Grammy winner and 7-time nominee as one of the best living house music deejays is his ability to evolve alongside the times, distil the current musical landscape through his unique taste and put his own timeless spin on all the music he creates.

“Little” Louie Vega, as he is sometimes affectionately known, was born in the Bronx into a musically gifted family (his father is a jazz saxophonist and his uncle, Salsa King Héctor Lavoe). The “Little” moniker is ironic, given the fact that by the 80s he was deejaying at clubs he wasn’t even old enough to attend, holding residencies at Studio 54, Devil’s Nest, Heartthrob, Roseland and playing at the Palladium, Area, 1018 and other seminal New York City Clubs.

For BBE Music’s landmark 500th release, the label joins forces with Louie Vega, Leroy Burgess and Patrick Adams to revisit ‘Barely Breaking Even’, the iconic track after which the label is named.

Louie joins us on the podcast today, listen to it below, on Spotify or iTunes here

Describe this podcast in 10 words…

Musical
Smooth
Funky
Unreleased Madness
Soothing
Healing
Rhythmic
Melodic
Expansions
Fiyaaah

What’s your personal favourite track on it?
I call it The Vince Montana Tribute, it’s an edit Rick Wilhite and I worked on paying homage to one of my favourite arranger/vibraphonist/artists.

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?
Total Spontaneity and lots of unreleased tracks that will be part of something special coming Feb 2020.

What’s the best gig you’ve played recently?
Wow, a few but a really recent one was Masters At Work Live at Paradise in Brooklyn, the venue Brooklyn Mirage. 5500 people in a frenzy!

The closing party of The Ritual With Ananè & Louie Vega which just happened, we had our very special guest International artist Robyn, a super hot show and a lovely crowd dance their butts off while Ananè and I did the dooooo!

What have you got coming up?
New single called “Let It Go” by Louie Vega & The Martinez Brothers With Marc E. Bassy Coming in November on Cuttin Headz

“Barely Breaking”  Even Out Now on BBE

“Praying For You” (Louie Vega Remix) – Jasper Street & Company coming in October on Nervous Records.

“Cosmic Witch” and “A Place Where We Can All Be Free” – Louie Vega Taken my upcoming album “Expansions In The NYC”.

Two albums I’m working on:
Expansions In The NYC my new House album coming in Feb 2020 with very special guests!
“Dreamer” Elements Of Life Album (my live band), it’s a brand new jazz dance album coming June 2020. Encompassing guests from legends to newcomers.

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?
Thank you all for the love!!! It’s wonderful to see how dance music is taking the world by storm !!! I’m Grateful!