Louie Vega

This fine double-pack features more alternate takes of tracks from Louie Vega’s vast Expansions in the NYC album. The headline attraction is the epic extended mix of the Rod Temperton penned jazz-funk/disco classic ‘The Star of a Story’, which not only boasts fine lead vocals from Lisa Fischer and shuffling samba-house beats, but also strings (arranged by Leroy Burgess) performed Kelley Polar and his colleagues in the Apple Hill quartet. The EP also includes instrumental and chunky ‘Vamp Dub’ passes of that track, plus alternative versions of two other tracks: the organic deep house roll of ‘A Place Where We Can All Be Free’ and a superb string-laden dub of ‘Love Has No Time Or Place’, featuring Vega’s Elements of Life band, which showcases the orchestral arrangements of Leroy Burgess and the late Patrick Adams.