Three Local Elementary Students Now Recording Artists, Soon Video Stars

Unless you’re a fan of world music or modern South African jazz, you may not be familiar with the award winning South African DJ/Producer Black Coffee or the renowned South African trumpeter, composer and singer Hugh Masekela.

But if you live in Fort Lee or your kids attend Fort Lee School No. 4, you may know local resident Louie Vega, whose son Nico is a fifth-grader at the school.

The Bronx born Vega, who now makes his home in Fort Lee and is better known in house music circles as “Little” Louie Vega, is legendary as a DJ, mixer and more recently a producer and has performed at some of New York’s top venues for the musical genre.

Vega, who focuses more these days on world music, recently teamed with Black Coffee, Masekela and others, including his wife Anane, a successful musician in her own right, to re-remix and produce the just released record “We Are One.”

Originally written by Black Coffee, whose international successes include the singles "Kwanele", "Turn Me On" and "Superman," and sung by Masekela, who also added trumpet parts to “We Are One,” Vega licensed the record under his label, Vega Records, and re-mixed it for international distribution.

“This music is very big in South Africa,” Vega said of Black Coffee. “It’s on [pop] radio. His music is on all the big stations. South Africa is amazing for this type of music.”

Vega said he and Anane have made multiple trips to South Africa since 1999 to perform for large audiences, and that they like the trend they see in modern music there.

“Over here, it’s more underground,” Vega said of house music. “Over there it’s like mainstream. They really embraced the music and the love for the whole scene. “I’m talking about 16-year-old kids, 17-year-old kids making this kind of music. We’re pretty excited about this whole thing. So it all really kind of ties together.”

When Vega ran into Black Coffee at last year’s World Music Conference in Miami, the collaboration was born on the “We Are One” project Vega described as “a song of love and peace and how you would change the world.”

The bare bones of the track had already been recorded, and production crews were already in the process of working on the video for the song.

“He said, ‘Louie, I really want the kids,’” Vega said, and that’s where the three Fort Lee elementary students came in. Vega’s son Nico and his best friends at School No. 4, Adam Almenas and Anselm Kizza-Beisgye entered Vega’s studio to record backing vocals and add some flare of their own.

“In the studio it was so cool because the kids came up with their own ideas,” Vega said. “It’s a song of love and peace. It’s a song about coming together and it speaks to the youth. So I told the kids [to] tell me how you would change the world today, and they started spitting out all this stuff. It was just like ‘no more war,’ ‘we need to stop the killing,’ stuff like that.”

In January, a video crew—after shooting footage of children in South Africa and New York for the past several months—came to Bennett Studios in Englewood to shoot footage of the three young Fort Lee vocalists ostensibly performing their parts in the studio.

Vega’s son, Nico, a 10-year-old fifth grader at School No. 4, described the recording process and video shoot as a “great experience,” though he’s no stranger to providing backing vocals on his dad’s records, having done so since he was “just a little kid.” He said the best part this time around though was getting to perform with his friends.

“It’s kind of like the Jonas Brothers,” Nico said.

On hearing himself back on the recording, Nico said, “I actually laugh a little. Sometimes I think it’s good. Sometimes I think it’s embarrassing.”

But the aspiring musician, who says he has every intention of following in his parents’ footsteps as a recording artist, also said he thinks it’s going to be beneficial for his future aspirations.

“I think it’s going to great that everybody’s going to be hearing my voice, because I can become known,” he said. “I want to do something in music. I’m already playing the piano, and I have a guitar.”

He also has a record credit on his resume now, as does one of his two best friends at School No. 4, fifth grade classmate Adam Almenas, who also appeared on the record and in the video.

A first-time performer, Adam said he especially enjoyed seeing what goes on behind the scenes at a recording studio and on a video shoot.

“I was a little nervous at first, but then I got the hang of it,” Adam said. “I felt really happy to be with my friends."

The best part of the experience for the 10-year-old, who also says he wants to become a “DJ or a recording artist” one day he said was “when I heard my voice. It made me feel pretty good, and I’m pretty lucky.”

The elder statesman among the three young recording stars, sixth-grader at School No. 4 Anselm Kizza-Beisgye, echoed Nico’s and Adam’s sentiments regarding the best part of the experience, saying, “My favorite part was working with my friends.”

Anselm, who’s no stranger to singing or performing, having appeared as a backup vocalist with Nico on his father’s records in the past and performed in school plays, said he learned a lot more about the recording process this time around.

“I thought we were just going to record once and it would be final, but actually we had to record several times,” he said.

He also said that while music is something he sees playing a prominent role in his future—he plays the piano, the clarinet and has dabbled in violin—he doesn’t think he wants to be a professional musician, unlike his friends.

“I love music, but I don’t think I really want to become a musician,” Anselm said. “It’s just a bit hard to become a musician. I think I’d rather become a historian, and just make music a pastime or a hobby.”

Still, he understands and respects his younger friends’ idealism.

“They’re fifth graders,” he explained. “They won’t understand for another year. I also thought I wanted to become a musician when I was in fifth grade. “

But he said the experience of working with his friends on “We Are One” is something he’ll always cherish.

His biggest contribution to the song and the one he is proudest of he says is the line he delivered when asked by Vega to riff on how we would change the world: “Give more power to the new generation.”

Editor’s Note: According to Louie Vega, “We Are One” is currently part of a worldwide single release. As of now the single is available digitally worldwide. Is available now on www.traxsource.com. In two days on www.vegarecords.net. And in seven days on itunes.com www.beatport.com in the U.K. Vega says the video is currently being edited in South Africa.