Masters At Work Present Nu Yorican Soul - The Nervous Track (1993)

Masters at Work are the house/garage production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. They first worked together using the name, which had been given to them by mutual friend Todd Terry. In 1987, Gonzalez loaned out the Masters At Work name (a street party alias he was using with Mike Delgado) to Todd Terry for the 1987 singles Alright Alright and Dum Dum Cry. Terry returned the favour one year later by introducing Gonzalez to Little Louie Vega. In 1990, they then took up the Masters At Work moniker to record their own work under.
Vega is also the cousin of Eric Vega, a popular event creator and promoter in New York City. The duo has also produced music together under the names MAW, KenLou, Sole Fusion, and Nuyorican Soul. Their Nuyorican Soul project had the duo working extensively with real (as opposed to sampled or synthesized) musicians, in a variety of styles including Latin, Disco, Jazz, amongst others.

Musicians who took part in this project include Vincent Montana Jr., Roy Ayers, George Benson, Jocelyn Brown, Tito Puente, and members of the Salsoul Orchestra. The self-titled album released under the name Nuyorican Soul in 1996 included original tracks as well as cover versions of songs by the performers with which the duo was working, such as Sweet Tears with Roy Ayers (reworking a track of his from 1971), and Runaway, originally sung by Loleatta Holloway with the Salsoul Orchestra, here sung by India and featuring musicians from the original 1977 recording.
MAW has an extensive history as remixers, having mixed tracks for dance acts as well as more mainstream artists, including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Donna Summer, Jody Watley, Janet Jackson, Jamiroquai, Earth Wind & Fire, and Stephanie Mills.
Many a time in a club you'd hear a quick shove or drag as a DJ corrected the mix when bringing this tune in; those soft edged chords on the intro weren't the most DJ friendly. I say this from experience; it was even more difficult when using sub-standard headphones in a club with a booming sound system. So a lot of times people (myself included) would just drop it clean from the beginning, which only added to the sense of occasion when the crowd realised what track it was a few chords in; whoops and cheers always followed realisation.
A great track that crossed dancefloors and genres.