B-Side Morning Brew w/ Bij & Niles

Niles
0:00:00
Good morning and welcome.

Bijon
0:00:08
You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles. Hot coffee, cool chatting, chilling on the corner of Lifestyle Lab and Music Street on

Niles
0:00:19
91.5 KUNV Jazz and more.

Linda Woodson
0:00:23
Welcome my brother.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:24
Good morning, man. I'm excited about today's show. We've got a couple of guests on later in the segment. Looking forward to that. That's right. It's great to be back on land. Let's start with our sip of coffee. Here we go. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:34
That's it.

Niles
0:00:35
Yeah, you were gone on the love boat for a bit, right? Why'd you call me Isaac the Cruiser?

Niles
0:00:41
I called you Isaac, dude.

Bijon
0:00:42
Oh, man. Why I gotta be Isaac? Oh, I know why. It's all good. No, it was... Hey, you can call me Julie if you want to call me Julie. It is 2024. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just got back from performing on the Jazz Crew. Fantastic week performing on the All-Star Big Band. Who was on there? So we got, we got Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Ileani Elias, Chucho Valdez and his band, Kido Rivera, who else, Emmett Cohen and his trio, Benny Benack III, Bria Skonberg, Ingrid Jensen, and her group Artemis, which has amazing pianist Rini Rosnes on it.

Bijon
0:01:32
About 90 jazz musicians all together with their bands or included in the bands. John Patitucci on bass. Okay. Jeff Hamilton of course and his trio. John Clayton. That is a lot of jazz.

Niles
0:01:50
How many venues, like you know, everybody's playing, I would imagine there's multiple shows going on at once and different levels or different venues

Bijon
0:01:58
on the ship or how does that work? Exactly. So the boat is chartered. We're on celebrity cruise lines and it's chartered. And basically there's music from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily in about eight different venues. So, yeah, every venue on the ship that can be used, the rendezvous lounge, the main dining room, they set up a stage in there, the sky lounge, all these different places that have stages and venues, and of course the Celebrity Theater, which is a big theater. There's about, I would say, eight different venues on the ship that have MUTE music going

Bijon
0:02:36
consecutively throughout the day.

Niles
0:02:38
So that's cool. Do they give the passengers, obviously, some sort of a book or list? A program.

Niles
0:02:45
There you go, yeah.

Bijon
0:02:46
passengers on the ship. Yeah. And they have a program that they have, you know, listing of, and actually this year they had an app that you could download the Jazz Cruise app, which allowed you to scroll through and set your schedule.

Bijon
0:03:02
Oh, cool. For the day, which is kind of cool. Yeah.

Bijon
0:03:05
That was fantastic.

Bijon
0:03:06
It's definitely a lot of music, a lot of other things like wine tastings with some of the jazz musicians. I led a few passenger jam sessions. A lot of passengers bring their instruments on and there's an area on the ship where they can jam.

Niles
0:03:22
How is that? Is that like herding cats kind of thing? Pretty much. Or is it cool?

Bijon
0:03:27
Let's put it this way. They thanked me at the end of it for coming in and bringing some order to the jam sessions. Yeah. That's cool, man. Yeah, it's great. People are being inspired every day by these musicians on the boat so they like to kind of try some stuff that they've heard. It's great, great to connect

Bijon
0:03:47
with the passengers as well. Sure, yeah. It's fun. Food I imagine, good? Plenty, plenty of food and drink, yes. Okay. But they have a great gym and spa in there as well. It's really nice. We stopped in Labadee, Haiti, Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, and St. Thomas. Did you get off the boat at all? Any of these ports? I've been to those, so I didn't really get off the boat. Plus, I had rehearsals that I had

Niles
0:04:16
to go to. But do they do that for passengers? No, passengers get off. Yeah, for excursions and stuff. That's cool. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. Every time you've talked about the jazz scoos, I don't know why I didn't think about also getting off on some of these ports and touring around.

Niles
0:04:31
Oh, exactly.

Bijon
0:04:32
Yeah, you're not captive. You're not held captive.

Bijon
0:04:34
Yeah, yeah.

Bijon
0:04:35
You get a chance to get on land, stretch out, get to see legs.

Niles
0:04:38
Yeah, that's cool.

Bijon
0:04:39
Great experience, man, but good to be home, back into the fray, of course, the semester started at Berkeley and ready to go.

Bijon
0:04:48
Back in it.

Niles
0:04:49
So is that what you're doing right now, just getting your lesson plans back?

Bijon
0:04:52
That, and then I head out with my big band, Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, to play at the New Trier Jazz Festival.

Niles
0:04:58
Okay, where's that at?

Bijon
0:05:00
In Chicago, outside of Chicago.

Niles
0:05:02
Okay, cool man. So are there multiple stages at that festival?

Bijon
0:05:06
No, it's just a high school jazz festival that has schools from all over the area come and perform and they have clinics for these bands. A lot of our band members will be giving clinics. Jeff Hamilton is going to be on drums. And a lot of people from the album will be there. So it will be great.

Bijon
0:05:27
It's going to be fun.

Niles
0:05:28
Well I know you have Kurt Elling singing, is it one or two songs on that album?

Bijon
0:05:32
Two songs on the album.

Niles
0:05:33
Okay. Is there any plans in terms of you guys performing where he might you know if it worked well he's in Chicago right does that work out at all where he could come in and do a guest spot or no

Bijon
0:05:43
he's actually gonna be on the road then but but we're gonna have another singer just doing we're actually looking ahead to the next album which we're going to be doing a live album in 2025 so nice starting to put that material together

Niles
0:05:55
live in terms of an actual performance a lot so we're gonna do like a run of

Bijon
0:05:59
shows at a nice hall and record.

Niles
0:06:02
Oh great man, oh that'll be good.

Bijon
0:06:03
And have a bunch of different guests come in and record. Yeah. We're gonna make kind of a compilation of the two or three nights.

Niles
0:06:10
Yeah, cause when you guys recorded that, wasn't it during lockdown, right? So everybody's at home in their studios.

Bijon
0:06:14
So yeah, about 80% of it was virtual and then the last bit was done in the studio, yeah.

Niles
0:06:19
Yeah, oh that'll be fun man.

Bijon
0:06:21
Yep, especially for a big band to have that live energy is really palpable for a nice album if you can record in a nice venue.

Niles
0:06:31
Speaking of live performances, we're very much looking forward to coming up in our segment now is singer-songwriter Linda Woodson and pianist and producer on this album Uli Geisendorfer. Let's play a song off the album. The song is called Stolen Moments off Linda Woodson's new album called Come a Little Closer. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beejah Niles here on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.

Music
0:07:03
Stolen moments fade away into dreams of yesterday Stolen promises of loving you Stolen moment How I long for our stolen little moment Time is wasted when we're apart With the spell that your love put me under

Music
0:07:56
I was doomed from the very start It was hard to behave since that look that you gave Everything that I do brings back memories of you So I have to let go of the moments we stole And watch them fade away Watch them fade away

Music
0:08:20
Why should I cry over our stolen moments? Why do I long to live in the past? At the time, it was sublime And we were just having fun, it wasn't meant to last And then it became so much more than a game And I have to confess that my life's been a mess

Music
0:08:44
But I'm holding on till the one day that we will have moments yet to still so 🎵 How I long for our stolen little moments Time is wasted when we're apart With the spell that your love put me under I was doomed from the very start It was hard to behave since that look that you gave

Music
0:09:47
Everything that I do brings back memories of you So I have to let go Of the moments we stole And watch them fade away Stolen moments Stolen moments fade away into dreams of yesterdays.

Music
0:11:13
Stolen promises of loving you. Stolen moments fade away into dreams of yesterdays stolen promises of loving you stolen promises of loving you

Bijon
0:12:02
Welcome back. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles. You just heard a tune from our guests we're about to speak with, Linda Woodson and Uli Geissendorfer. A tune entitled Stolen Moments. So we'd like to welcome to the show Linda Woodson and Uli Geissendorfer.

Niles
0:12:22
Welcome. Welcome.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:12:23
Thank you.

Bijon
0:12:25
Welcome to you guys. It's wonderful to be here. Well you're not dealing with snow here and well we have a major

Uli Geissendorfer
0:12:29
what they call a nor'easter coming through Boston right now. Well my suggestion to you is keep it

Niles
0:12:36
over there. Right. I don't agree. We need our ski season. Uli we need our ski season over here.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:12:45
Yeah but that's the nice thing about Vegas you know you got you know that seven degrees and then you go up the mountains and you can ski and you go back to Budapest weather.

Niles
0:12:54
True. OK, so I would like to know how this collaboration started. Uli, how did you get to know Linda and how did this whole thing come to pass in terms of then getting into producing the album?

Uli Geissendorfer
0:13:08
I met Linda about six years ago. Six years ago, I think she was part of a group, Lord Henley's Jasmine, and they were performing at the Dispensary Lounge, the place I curate and play at. And I saw her and went like, hmm, this lady can sing.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:13:24
And I think I would like to do something with her. So we got together and invited her and we started doing some shows with the trio. And then she had the idea to do a Nancy Wilson tribute. And just before the big pause, the pandemic hit. We did that Nancy Wilson show and it was wonderfully received. It was tremendous success. Linda looked amazing. She actually had her dress, one of the dresses,

Uli Geissendorfer
0:13:48
tailored after the album cover of Cannonball Adderley's and Nancy Wilson, the idea. And she looked the part, more than the part, my heavens. And she sounded great. And of course, then the pandemic hit and that was the end of that. But through all of that, you were talking, and then Linda is also a wonderful lyricist, as you just heard on Stone Moments, those are her original lyrics,

Uli Geissendorfer
0:14:10
and she's a wonderful writer. So we started going, okay, let's do an album. Since she'd never done a full album, but a smaller scale, had a bunch of stuff out there, said let's do it right. So we do it right, and we did it right.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:14:26
We invited all kinds of people. We had a great rhythm section. We had Ryan Rose, a wonderful drummer, who came in from Detroit and he worked with me on my albums before. Anyway, so we started to do it and then invited all kinds of people.

Niles
0:14:40
So, Linda, were you writing lyrics or did you start writing this album during the pandemic?

Linda Woodson
0:14:45
Or was this also material from before then? Some of the material from the album was before then, but the lyrics that I came up with for Stolen Moments came afterwards because, as Uli had mentioned, sometimes we would perform at the dispensary together and I had heard the, I guess, the original lyrics for Stolen Moments and I was like, well, I like that song, I want to do it, and then in trying to remember those lyrics, I was like, let me just come up with my own if I'm going to remember

Linda Woodson
0:15:15
something I might as well do my own lyrics and that's kind of how that came about yeah we came up with that arrangement. So in terms of picking the

Niles
0:15:24
tracks or coming up with these tunes was it just a true collaboration in terms of both of you getting together and figuring out even the direction musically how did that whole thing come to pass? Definitely a collaboration

Linda Woodson
0:15:36
there were some tunes that I definitely wanted to do and So I when I got together you know we kind of worked through some of the Arrangements and wanted to just make them more unique and that's kind of how it came about a couple of the tunes I've done before Revamped them and those are the ones that you'll hear on this album. That's cool

Niles
0:15:55
No, I had the chance to see Lillian vitamin to your CD release was that a couple three months ago four months ago something like that? Your CD release party at, where was that show, Uli? It was beautiful, it was a great show.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:16:08
Oh, at the Smith Center?

Linda Woodson
0:16:09
No. That was at Gatsby.

?
0:16:12
Oh, at Gatsby.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:16:13
That's right, that was, yeah.

Niles
0:16:14
That was the first time I saw you, and I remember afterwards, the next day I called Bijan. I'm like, man, we have to have her on the series.

Niles
0:16:22
Oh, cool.

Niles
0:16:23
We definitely want to invite you guys to our Smith Center show in September to come up and do a couple of your tunes if you'd like to do so. So it's when is that show?

Bijon
0:16:32
Looking forward to that. I believe September, we'll take a look at the figure out the exact date but we'll find out. But you know I heard that you did a tribute to Nancy Wilson which is who's one of my favorite vocalists and I had the pleasure of recording with her and performing with her with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. So, huge fan, and as well as the Adderley Brothers. So, you obviously, that's one of your influences.

Bijon
0:16:57
Who are some of your other musical influences that you draw from in your music?

Linda Woodson
0:17:02
Well, definitely along the same lines as Nancy Wilson, I would say Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. More contemporary, I like Gregory Porter and Kurt Elling, the lyricist that influenced that I get from them and Al Girod of course. So kind of a hodgepodge of different artists that I am

Bijon
0:17:23
inspired by. That's great and all groove oriented too, especially when you talk about Al Girod, Kurt Elling with his new Super Blue project. I mean that's pretty amazing the music he's doing. He definitely stretched. So you like to stretch the boundaries then of what are considered between jazz and groove and soul and R&B is what it sounds like.

Linda Woodson
0:17:42
Yeah, the lyrics really speak to me. I try to stretch that and do I won't say complicated, but more intricate lyrics and I'm drawn to songs that kind of go deep within that world of not so straightforward. I like to kind of be a little abstract and challenge my brain.

Bijon
0:18:07
Yeah, challenge the audience's brain as well. I like that. I like that. It's excellent.

Niles
0:18:12
Uli, did you guys, you know, Grammys are coming up, obviously. Did you guys submit this album or are you waiting until next year or did you already submit this one?

Uli Geissendorfer
0:18:20
No, we submitted it this round and we almost got another nomination, I suppose, because I got some amazing feedback from a lot of people. It was interesting, too, because Linda actually decided to have it come out on Vegas Records, my label, and we had four submissions and hers was just flying through the roof. I got so much beautiful feedback. But also the competition, I mean, was just like ridiculous. What categories did you submit for? Well, first we did vocal jazz, but then her variety on the album is

Uli Geissendorfer
0:18:53
quite a big thing. We got more gospel-y tune, we got a more almost country tune, we got something straight ahead, we got something in the middle, because her lyrics and her musical approach is very broad. So then it was put into a traditional pop album. You know, they got the new alternative jazz category now? I had alternative jazz although that seems to be mostly occupied by smooth jazz and some other things and in that category I actually had a duo album with Julian Tanaka and myself in there. Yeah. Which got some nice

Uli Geissendorfer
0:19:26
reviews as well but you know it's building up momentum it's it's building more and more alliances over the years and it's yeah yeah it's a it's a ramping up progress but I think Linda whoever listened to it was just floored

Niles
0:19:41
We go like what a beautiful album and stuff. Yeah, so being on your label So can you tell us a little bit about your? Record label and like what it's how it's doing what it's doing in terms of even with Linda's record like what's the process?

Uli Geissendorfer
0:19:54
well

Uli Geissendorfer
0:19:55
first we get together and Do the music of course and then bring it out and the design of it and all that. And then I'll bring it out just independently. We hired some promotional people like for radio promotion and print promotion. We have Jemigo and we have Ben Schultz.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:20:19
Actually, we didn't do much print. We did mostly with Ben Schultz and he's been very good. We got some really nice traction all around the world just on the radio. That's great. And then you promote it locally. And of course the best thing is to go out there and perform as, you know,

Uli Geissendorfer
0:20:36
the music business is to some degree shrinking or non-existent anymore almost in traditional ways. So you want to go out there and then you can sell more product and drive people to as well listen to it. So I send it out to dozens and dozens of people listen to it, and Link saw as well the promo.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:20:56
And we're working on getting a tour together. At the end of the day, the internet is so dense, the noise level is so strong that it's hard to get above that, so you need to go out and once people see you as well, personally it's a whole different bargain.

Niles
0:21:13
It's true, it's true. And also with that, in terms of promotion, looking at your video, Linda, for Stolen Moments, it's beautiful. It's a great video. Where did you guys shoot that?

Linda Woodson
0:21:24
We shot it at, it's like a warehouse. It has different little scenes and vignettes that you can kind of...

Niles
0:21:31
Oh, like skits?

Linda Woodson
0:21:32
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so, it was, we did it in like two hours. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just kind of put it together and it

Niles
0:21:41
was it was cool. I'm very proud of that. Yeah, it should be. It's beautifully done. I thought you were in, you know, obviously at a place that's really cool to know. When we're off air, Uli, you got to give me that. You guys got to give me that information. I have to shoot videos. I was like, where's that at? For sure. No, it's beautiful. And the song is fantastic. I mean, so that's why I was asking earlier if that's the single, because the video is so strong.

Uli Geissendorfer
0:22:05
Yeah, it should have been released before that. It started, actually, I see that people nowadays, you release one tune, then the next one, the next one, four, five, six tunes, and then finally the whole album. At that time, we did not quite enough time,

Uli Geissendorfer
0:22:18
because we wanted to get it in the Grammys, so we needed to release it. But the album is still valid, and it's still there, so in the upcoming months, we can do that. We make more concerted efforts with one tune here and placement of tune here, etc.

Niles
0:22:32
Yeah, no, it's a good thing. And look, and like to your point earlier, in terms of the Internet, you could always go back and release, so to speak, release it or promote it as a single if you wanted to. Exactly. You know, and how many times the biggest artists in the world, my hero, Sting, it's like that stuff, Roxanne, they put it out twice, you know, back then when there was the Gatekeepers

Niles
0:22:53
because it didn't sell at first and they just went back and put a different cover on it

Niles
0:22:57
and went for it.

Niles
0:22:58
I mean, there's so many of those stories. I mean, now you can do anything you want so you can push it however you want, so. Well, let's play another tune here. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles here on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.

Niles
0:23:13
This is Linda Woodson, I'm in.

Music
0:23:16
KUNV, Jazz and more. This is Linda Woodson. I'm water you're the sponge And you really soaked me in I'm in, and I won't try to fight it Cause the feeling's been ignited, and the heat has dung me in I can feel it in my soul Love just opened like a hole and I fell in

Music
0:23:59
I'm in, I lost my reservations, done the calculations and the numbers count me in, I'm in, I'm in, and I'm acting like a fool, cause your arms were like a pool, they were there and I jumped in. I hope it doesn't scare you, it doesn't matter where or when, I'm in. It doesn't matter where or when I'm in so

Music
0:24:42
I'm in, there's nothing left to say, far too late for me to turn away, the world is up, I'm in. Welcome back, you're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beejah Niles here on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More. That was I'm In by Linda Woodson on her new album Come a Little Closer.

Niles
0:25:08
That's cool, so what's next for you guys? I mean, I see that you got a couple shows coming up You've got shows at the dispensary and at South Point Casino and Maxon

Linda Woodson
0:26:11
Yeah, we're I'll be at the dispensary in a few weeks with Uli and At the South Point that's on the Dennis Bono show. So that's just an opportunity to get more exposure. That'll be my first time, so that'll be like, you know, the rite of passage, I guess.

Niles
0:26:31
Where can our listeners find you, Linda? Where can they find your music? Where can they go to watch the video?

Linda Woodson
0:26:37
The video is on my YouTube channel, Linda Woodson. All the music is on the digital platforms that are

Uli Geissendorfer
0:26:45
out there. I have a website, lindawoodson.com. But another place you can hear the music at is also Vegas Records, of course, where there's a bunch of other wonderful releases out there. And this year we have another five records slated already, too.

Niles
0:26:59
What's the website to your record label?

Uli Geissendorfer
0:27:01
VegasRecords.org. So, and I'm very much looking forward to playing together with you guys again and having Linda's music at your next concert, I think.

Niles
0:27:10
It flows so well. It's what, you know, I've seen, I've seen you twice now, Linda, and every time I've been, or those couple times I've been incredibly impressed. And that's why I told Bij, I'm like, she's right up our alley, man. Like we gotta, you know, we have to have her on the series.

Linda Woodson
0:27:24
Thank you.

?
0:27:24
Bij?

Bijon
0:27:25
All right, you've been listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles, and our guest, singer-songwriter-vocalist Linda Woodson, and keyboardist, composer, arranger, educator, all-around amazing human Uli Geissendorfer, for joining us on B-Side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles.

Bijon
0:27:44
If you would like to hear more of Linda's music, you can go to lindawoodson.com or find her on her YouTube channel. And if you'd like to hear more of Uli Geissendorfer's projects, you can go to vegasrecords.org. So we'd like to thank you both for coming in today.

Linda Woodson
0:28:01
Thank you.

Bijon
0:28:02
It was wonderful to be here with you guys. Wow it's so great to talk to them and Linda and

Niles
0:28:14
catch up with Uli. It just really exemplifies the great music community that exists in Las Vegas. It does and she's so nice and you know like I said I've seen her a couple times live. Uli had

Bijon
0:28:42
invited me and she's incredible live.

Niles
0:28:28
upcoming show at the Smith Center in September, which we'll tell you all about soon, where to get tickets. Absolutely. So we're really looking forward to that. But yeah, incredible

Bijon
0:28:38
singer, incredible performer, and a beautiful album. Well, I guess it's time to wrap it up, right? We gotta get on and get ready for, I know that you're working on some music, I'm working on some music, we gotta work on our album together and we'll talk more about that as we... It's a busy moment! It is! I mean, we're not letting the grass grow underneath our feet here. No. Well we'd like to take a moment to thank 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More for being our media partners and our amazing hosts. And we'd also like to thank High Note

Bijon
0:29:09
Roasters for being one of our partners and... And being delicious. If you'd like to know more about What Niles and myself are up to we invite you to visit NilesThomas.com Or BijanWatson.com good morning everyone, and we'll see you soon later

Niles
0:29:26
You've been listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles, chillin' on the corner You've been listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles, chillin' on the corner

Bijon
0:29:33
of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.