BBE Music has something special planned for their 500th release. The label brought the legendary Patrick Adams, Leroy Burgess and Louie Vega into the studio for a new vision of “Barely Breaking Even,” the track from The Universal Robot Band from what BBE takes its name.

Adams and Burgess are original members of The Universal Robot Band, along with the great “Red Greg” Greg Carmichael, Woody Cunningham, Richard Lee, Paul Crutchfield and Norman Durham of The Jam Band (later to become R&B titans Kleeer.) You can draw a musical family tree that starts with Carmichael, Burgess and Adams and has a branch for just about every bad-ass disco, house and soul artist that followed – many of them introduced or brought to prominence via BBE.

Sumsuch apparently wrote this copy for BBE about the sessions:

It was at the string recording session for the boogie version that Louie Vega unveiled his ‘NYC House Mix’ to the assembled musicians, at which point he and Leroy Burgess quickly arranged a brand new horn section and re-wrote the song’s melody to compliment the track’s accelerated pace. What the team emerged with is so much more than a remix- it’s a unified call-back to two golden eras; that of disco-boogie and that of New York House. And it’s beautiful.

 

The (deep breath) Louie Vega presents Leroy Burgess & The Universal Robot Band feat. Patrick Adams recording of “Barely Breaking Even” is out on September 27, 2019 from BBE. Pre-order on Bandcamp or from BBE. Pre-saves for streaming are here.

Tracklist:

1. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Boogie Mix
2. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Boogie Mix (Instrumental)
3. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Boogie Mix (Radio Edit)
4. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Boogie Mix (Radio Edit Instrumental)
5. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Boogie Mix (TV Track Long)
6. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix
7. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Instrumental)
8. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Expansions NYC Vamp Dub
9. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Expansions NYC Vamp Dub (Instrumental)
10. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega Expansions NYC Vamp Dub with Mo Backgrounds
11. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Radio Edit)
12. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Radio Edit Instrumental)
13. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix (Radio TV Track)
14. Barely Breaking Even – Louie Vega NYC House Remix (TV Track Long)