Happy 25th Anniversary to Nuyorican Soul’s eponymous debut (and only) studio album Nuyorican Soul, originally released January 29, 1997.
Ever since I bought my first album on cassette way back when, I have loved liner notes. As well as the visceral thrill of the music, albums have also been about connecting the dots between artists, genres and those who contribute to the great pieces of art we are fortunate enough to hold in our hands. For me it’s never been enough to listen—I’ve always wanted to learn more about how the album was created, who helped along the way and how it fits in to the grand scheme of things.
The most helpful albums in joining up the musical cosmos are those that blend genres or lay bare the musical forebears of the particular artist or sound at hand. Nuyorican Soul is one of the albums that opened my ears to the importance of Latin music in the development of the music I love. Created by Masters At Work (MAW), the dynamic house music production duo comprised of “Little Louie” Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez, it revels in their Puerto Rican upbringing amidst the cultural multiplicities of New York City and joins the dots between Latin, soul, disco, house and jazz to create a picture of musical excellence that acts as a love letter to the music that made them.
That love is what binds a disparate set of ideas together, that might otherwise not have worked as brilliantly as it does. Firstly, there is a mixture of original compositions and covers and, secondly, there are numerous spectacular collaborators who could easily take over proceedings. Yet it all sits under the auspices of the Nuyorican duo, forging together the past and the present seamlessly.
Broadly speaking, the album is split in two—at the beginning and end of the album are the more dancefloor-oriented tunes that would more easily be associated with Masters At Work’s name, whilst sandwiched in the middle of the album are a clutch of Latin jazz numbers that speak to their Puerto Rican heritage. Both aspects are a mixture of originals and covers and both come replete with impeccable guest contributors.
Not all the tracks feature vocals but when they do, the suppliers of those vocals merit mention and praise of the highest grade. At times, dance music has treated singers harshly—often the actual vocalist has been virtually erased from videos, TV appearances and so on in favor of someone who fits a different agenda, but here the vocalists are credited and vital to the success of the project. In Jocelyn Brown, Lisa Fischer, Cindy Mizelle and Paulette McWilliams, MAW formed a group of singers almost without compare. A glance at their collective bodies of work shows not just impeccable pedigree, but also a certifiable lineage of the eras that contribute to Vega and Gonzalez’s sound.
In Jocelyn Brown, they have a monumental voice of devastating power. The singer of epochal groove “Somebody Else’s Guy” spent time as a vocalist for Chic, Change and the Salsoul Orchestra (amongst others) and here she plants her foot firmly in the ass of two solid-gold certifiably monster songs. First up is a glorious cover of Rotary Connection’s psych-soul gem “I Am The Black Gold of the Sun” and then the heart-pounding, euphoric positivity of “It’s Alright, I Feel It.”
Cindy Mizelle meanwhile offers both musical and familial lineage. The niece of the legendary Mizell brothers (Jackson 5 and Donald Byrd) and cousin of one of the Ronettes, Mizelle has sung with a vast array of artists including Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen. Paulette McWilliams is somehow just as dazzling in her experience. Having started out with Rufus (and recommending her friend Chaka Khan to replace her), she would go on to sing with Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. And then there’s Lisa Fischer whose charms are so eloquently revealed here.
The vocal talent on Nuyorican Soul is exceptional, but this excellence is matched by the other guests who light up the album. A further acknowledgement of the love the duo have for the New York club culture that birthed them is the presence of Vince Montana. Montana is often referred to as the “Godfather of Disco” and began his rise to prominence in the late 1960s for his work with Thom Bell, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as they birthed the “Sound of Philadelphia” with artists such as The O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. A fallout over finance led to Montana leaving in 1974 and he founded the Salsoul Orchestra and worked his magic alongside Loleatta Holloway, William DeVaughan and countless others before joining Atlantic Records in the late 1970s.
Montana is joined by Latin music legend Tito Puente, the jazz-funk god Roy Ayers and the incomparable George Benson. Like the vocalists, these guests plot the lineage of music that leads to MAW’s door, highlighting the characteristics that make up the musical DNA of the New York duo. That DNA that also includes hip hop and Jazzy Jeff pops up near the album’s closing to throw his two cents into the mix.
Having blown the doors off with Jocelyn Brown’s aforementioned dynamic duo of songs, the album moves on to Tito Puente’s “MAW Latin Blues” before Brown and Lisa Fischer take center stage demonstrating their versatility, scatting melodiously back and forth on “Gotta New Life.” Bob James’ brand of jazzy funkiness gets a rework on “Nautilus (MAWtilus)” with a string arrangement courtesy of the legend Vince Montana.
The focus changes once more over the next two songs with Eddie Palmieri, the pianist/composer/bandleader noted for his mambos and monas leading the delicate piano piece “Taita Caneme.” It’s left-of-center feeling leads Carol Cooper (in the liner notes) to proclaim Palmieri a “stand out among Latin Jazz composers.” “Habriendo El Dominante,” meanwhile, is sinuous and gently writhing, driven by Eric Velez’s congas and bongo drums, while Palmieri oscillates between flourishes of Latin keys and more percussive stabs of piano.
That similar left-field approach is exemplified by Roy Ayers’ effortlessly cool vibes playing and scat singing on the unimaginatively yet aptly titled “Roy’s Scat.” From this point onwards though, the album is dominated by certifiable dance floor winners. Salsa queen India joins the phalanx of vocal treasures singing backing vocals on the stomper “Sweet Tears” alongside Ayers’ floating vocals, the dance floor thud and the see-sawing strings arranged by Vince Montana. It offers the melding of disco era sounds with a more contemporary sound of dance music—the Masters At Work calling card on this album.
India steps forward to take lead vocal duties on an updating of the Loleatta Holloway and Salsoul Orchestra hit from 1977, “Runaway,” and it once again marries the carefree disco sound of the original with a respectful updating of production values. Lurking at the end of the album though is my favorite song that is illuminated by the stellar work of guest George Benson. “You Can Do It (Baby)” began as a blank slate for Benson, encouraged to simply play and try different melodies and improvisations as MAW sought out the hook that would form the basis of the song.
Displaying all of his skills and influences, Benson played classical lines, Spanish lines and Wes Montgomery-esque phrases until inspiration struck the production duo. Removing the backing they had provided for Benson initially, they returned with a new rhythm track that Carol Cooper called “propulsive and silkily erotic.” The song begins with Benson’s barely accompanied guitar musings, before a subtle, almost ambient keyboard phrase ushers in the rest of the accompaniment. Add in the positive exhortation of the lyrics from Benson’s plaintive tone and it starts to shimmer like the Caribbean Sea at dawn. Once the beat drops though, the shimmer is gone to be replaced by an undeniable groove that could go for days.
It is difficult to add anything to how esteemed writer Carol Cooper summed up the albums’ strengths, legacy and importance in the liner notes: “MAW were never suckered into the glib, revisionist propaganda depicting the 1970s as ‘the decade that taste forgot.’ Their record collections proved that both Latin and Black musicians created work of unprecedented sophistication during this period, often working together on tracks which combined jazz, rock, funk and Afro-Latin elements. Nuyorican Soul is . . . a firm vision of how to carry these traditions boldly into a new, improved, vibrantly multi-ethnic future.”
LISTEN: