B-Side Morning Brew w/ Bij & Niles

Announcer
0:00:00
This is a KUNV Studios original program.

Wes Knight
0:00:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz & More, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Music
0:00:15
Good morning and welcome.

Bijon
0:00:16
You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beebz and Niles. Hot coffee, cool chat, chillin' on the corner of Lifestyle

Niles
0:00:32
App and Music Street on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:38
All right, man.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:38
We are in it.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:39
We are in it. We are in it. We're in it. This took a little bit to make this happen, right? I mean, right now you're in the midst of, what's your chaos

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:44
again?

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:44
Renovating first floor apartment. School starts and two of my colleagues are moving in next week. And I got to get all that together. And they canceled the appliance delivery. Let's start with our sip of coffee. Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's it.

Bijon
0:00:55
...or postponed it. I don't know. They don't have it in stock. If I knew the answer to that question, I would never have scheduled it. So, they scheduled it and said they don't have it. So, yeah. Okay. So, dealing with that. Yeah. Exciting times. And another...

Niles
0:01:13
another this reminds me of an old radio show our episode we did a long time ago with what's your boy speaking of monk who's your boy who's a fellow what's his name easily yeah easily I remember when he first won the Grammy a couple three years ago your question to him was how's it feel as well I'm I got it. It's like nothing's changed.

Bijon
0:01:39
Depressed now.

Niles
0:01:41
Yeah. So people that might be able to go, oh, man, BGI Grammy award winning this. There's like, yeah, I'm dealing with refurbishing some house stuff right now.

Bijon
0:01:50
Yeah. Real life still continues. Trust me.

Bijon
0:01:54
Trust me.

Niles
0:01:55
So funny. The facade of things is great.

Bijon
0:01:57
It's all good. We are very fortunate to have homes to refurbish or renovate.

Niles
0:02:04
Yeah, yeah.

Niles
0:02:05
Now that really is a blessing, isn't it?

Niles
0:02:08
Majorly so.

Niles
0:02:09
All good. Cool. Okay, well, now that you've taken your painter's cap off, so to speak, we're here now.

Bijon
0:02:16
We are.

Niles
0:02:17
On 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More, you're listening to the Bees and Niles Show. What's this show called? B-Side, right.

Bijon
0:02:26
Welcome everybody, you're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bijan Niles on 91.5 KUNV, Jazz and more.

Niles
0:02:34
There it is. You're the pro. That's the pro way of doing it, right?

Bijon
0:02:37
That is some things I remember. But we're in it. We're in it.

Niles
0:02:42
So, speaking of, let's just jump right in, man. One is that we are rapidly coming upon our upcoming show at the Smith Center on September 10th, which we're all very excited about. Tickets are selling amazingly so we look forward to a sold out show. Man, I'm giddy as a schoolboy getting back out there. As well as you should be. And one must realize, our listeners must realize, for Niall to use the word giddy is something in and of itself. So we are thrilled that he has attained that level of giddiness. Yeah, right. Yeah, no, you know, you know that place. It's like they take care of us, too. I mean, even before we're, you know, the concert itself, I mean, just the staff and everybody there and Kevin and the boys, you know, running sound and just really handling business for us.

Bijon
0:03:32
I mean, the whole the whole team at Smith Center is just first class, first rate from the Education and Engagement Department. Melanie and you know, like I said, Kevin at the production and everyone in the marketing team is on point. So, we look forward to them making your experience at the show awesome as well.

Niles
0:03:56
Yeah, and we're looking forward to, again, all of our guests, right? Linda Woodson singing a couple of her tunes with Uli Geisendorfer, her producer and pianist. He's going to be doing one of his original tunes as well. The Duchess, of course, we've got Laura Schaefer, the jazz chanteuse herself coming up to join us for a couple of tooth treat tunes. Man, who else?

Bijon
0:04:20
Everyone's bringing their vibe. We've got my man Tom Luer, Tom Face Luer on sax. And he'll actually be performing with Poncho Sanchez later in the month.

Niles
0:04:32
No, later that week.

Bijon
0:04:34
Later that week, yeah.

Niles
0:04:35
Yeah. They're playing, I think, Friday and Saturday.

Bijon
0:04:38
Double dip with Tom Face Luer. Come see him with us, and then come back and see him with Poncho Sanchez later in the week.

Niles
0:04:45
Yeah.

Bijon
0:04:45
And so it's going to be a lot of good times.

Niles
0:04:49
Well, we also have YL Douglas, drummer for Barry Manilow. So that's going to be great performing with him because we've never performed with him before. So I think that's going to be

Bijon
0:04:57
you know, it's great for him to bring his musical talents into the public. And of course, our usual suspects, Nick VIP Schmidt, Brian Tree Triola, and of course, skits. Yeah, so a lot of stuff going on, a lot of new territory, got some surprises for you're going to see Niles in some different capacities on stage. We're looking forward to that. It's going to be fun. So yeah, I'm looking forward to him bringing his new music and you know, Niles is kind of a renaissance man. He's always reinventing himself and taking from the things that he comes across historically, musically, and always incorporates that into his music, which makes him a great person to work with from an artistic standpoint, but also challenging.

Niles
0:05:47
But you know what, man? I appreciate that.

Bijon
0:05:49
Wouldn't have it any other way.

Niles
0:05:50
But look, some of my heroes, from that perspective, like a David Bowie, you could never nail that cat down. He was always doing something different. That to me, you talk about gumbo of music, you know, I mean, it's not being limited to any one style or genre. It's taking all the influences and inspirations you have

Bijon
0:06:26
and kind of blending things together. And sometimes you're in the mood for some jazz, sometimes you're in the mood for soul or R&B or swing or whatever it's going to be, rock and roll, you know. Which is know, um, which is why I like that artists. Yeah. Which is why we, as artists are always frustrated by the music industry, how they try and compartmentalize what we do.

Niles
0:07:00
Yeah.

Bijon
0:07:00
And, you know, kind of throw a low key guilt trip on us for if we don't fit into their certain box of what they're expecting. Right. And you and I constantly have this conversation, not only about what is what makes a quality artist, which is totally, you know, subjective, of course, but also, why are we constantly forced to categorize our musical offerings and our artistry? And we had an interesting discussion about that with your music, your project,

Niles
0:07:10
and Velveteen Rabbits, about what is that? Yeah, it's a gumbo of, you know, yeah it's rockabilly, it's swing, it's jump blues, it's kind of an amalgamation of everything. But going back to your point a second ago, I was talking a week ago with a mutual friend of ours in New York and he was introducing me to this female singer. I won't mention any names. He's like, man, you got to check her out. We're actually inviting her to our, they have a private club that they run or something over there in New York. And we're inviting her to perform and we had this long conversation. She's a great singer. I'm like, well, what quantifies great? What does that mean for you? Because everybody's definition is different, right? And he really couldn't answer the question. So he's like, listen, I'll send you a link. Check her out for yourself. know the people here in town that my friends will say oh man you got to go see so-and-so she's great they're great okay and I go and there's no doubt these singers are fantastic but for me where I come from they're fantastic I would hire them for background vocals but you don't there's no for what when someone says great to me my definition is uniqueness as well. It's like, when I listen to this girl he sent me, I'm like, I said, what's her name? I'm going mind blank. I told you Liza Minnelli. She already owns that. Liza Minnelli owns that. I said,

Bijon
0:09:01
where's the unique voices to me that are great? The Billie Holidays, Stevie Nicks, Kim Karnes, Sade, any of those kind of singers that have a unique quality to them. It's not that and they're not great singers in terms of what would you say, technically. Exactly. I mean what would be the traditionally technical pedagogy, what is a great vocalist, not all those people are especially in music, there's too much hyperbole. Yeah. Oh, they're amazing. Oh, they're phenomenal. Oh, that's like, well, I think we're not as careful as we should be with that, you know, or be more specific. Oh, that was fantastic the way they interpreted that, or what they did was made people numb to what is really greatness in terms of artistry and makes it difficult for people to, the audience I'm talking about, to be able to discern what is really, what it is that they're actually drawn to. Because many times many of our artists, I said this when we were talking last night when we should have taped this show, was Dave Matthews is not a great singer. But you'd pay almost anything to go see him, right? There's a group of people that go see him.

Niles
0:10:14
I mean, But he's a great singer in his own, because he's unique, he does his own thing.

Bijon
0:10:18
You know, Elton John, you wouldn't say he's a great singer.

Niles
0:10:23
Right, Bruce Springsteen.

Bijon
0:10:25
Oh, Bruce Springsteen, just got on the list, right? So I think we have to be conscientious of that and understand, and I think that's what we are hoping to do with Jazz Republic, is kind of enlighten or introduce the audience to an artistry that has high integrity to it. Do we say, will we be upset if you don't necessarily like it? We think you will. We know you'll enjoy it for its artistry. It's not your cup of tea, that's one thing. I think it's different to say something's not your cup of tea, but there's some things which transcend whether it's your cup of tea and their artistry is undeniable. Bob Marley's artistry is undeniable. Am I a fan of Bob Marley? No, not really at all.

Niles
0:11:11
But I can respect everything that's done. Well I would much rather as an artist I'd much rather someone walk away not liking what I do because they're just not into what I do rather than me being a quote-unquote tribute artist me trying to do a Sinatra thing or something and people not liking it's like well you don't sound enough like Sinatra yeah exactly but I would rather I'd rather

Bijon
0:11:58
I'd rather people not like me because of what I do, music or from my own art, rather than trying to determine if I'm good or not because I'm trying to emulate someone. Yeah, I'm like, no, thank you. I've never been a good karaoke singer anyway, truth be told. I don't mean to offend the singers out there doing tributes. And I think that's great. I mean, there's a there's a place for that. But I think to oftentimes categorize people that are emulating an artist versus people that are creating new artistry, I think there definitely should be separated. They should not be put into one category. So we go through this all the time. And so if you look at our mission of Jazz Republic is, you know, I think you and I can speak with a great deal of honesty that there have not been people that have come to our shows and then afterwards said, you know, I really didn't dig that at all. Yeah. It's not my thing. I mean, no, we've been very blessed that way.

Niles
0:12:43
We've been fortunate and we appreciate that from our audience, of course. Yeah, well and it goes to show even with this upcoming concert at Smith Center on September 10th, I will continue to plug it, is I mean Linda Woodson is more R&B soul with hints of jazz, right? Laura brings in her thing, this time she's going to bring in a little bit more of the swing kind of flavor in a couple

Bijon
0:13:27
of those tunes, you know,

Niles
0:13:30
to what you do, which is a little bit more funky, a little bit more R&B it's a it really is a mix. I think Uli's tune is gonna be more of a jazz noir type song and then you've got my new stuff which is more upbeat you know. It's interesting man, I love that. I'm glad we do what we do. I mean and we

Bijon
0:13:28
should be able to perform that without any trepidation, that's my point. Right.

Niles
0:13:32
Absolutely. Well luckily I think whoever does come to our shows from our fans that have been with us for a number of years now to even I've been looking at you know because we're running ads on Facebook as well I've been looking at some of the comments from people we've yet to know or even meet and they're excited by the commercial video I'm like man there's some new audience members but but you know what you're getting you know I mean like you know that you're gonna get a mix or a blend of different styles of music within the original unit

Bijon
0:14:03
to get by the way

Niles
0:14:04
all original

Bijon
0:14:06
are we really are we ready for music now one of my he was influenced in terms of composition performance and has featured people like miles davis before miles davis performance pretty hard work for

Bijon
0:14:17
former

Bijon
0:14:18
so many other vocalists and artists and it actually the artistic director of jazz for the hollywood bowl uh... his herbie hancock is Herbie Hancock. And I've had the pleasure of performing with him, backing him up at the Hollywood Bowl and the Disney Hall and things like that. And one of my favorite tunes of his is a tune entitled Tell Me a Bedtime Story. And it's from his album Fat Albert Rotunda.

Niles
0:14:42
I don't know if you remember that cartoon Fat Albert.

Bijon
0:14:44
Oh yeah, good. A lot of this music was based off of that cartoon which featured African-American youth that lived down basically, you know, not in the hood, but you know, they're the city, right?

Niles
0:14:55
Yeah, yeah.

Bijon
0:14:56
Yeah. And so, yeah, I figured we'd play that.

Niles
0:14:59
Hey, hey, hey.

Niles
0:15:00
What's that one?

Bijon
0:15:01
Hey, hey, hey. Exactly.

Niles
0:15:03
Great stuff, man, yeah.

Bijon
0:15:04
So, this is Tell Me a Bedtime Story, a tune written by Herbie Hancock off of his album Fat Albert Rotunda. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bees and Niles on 91.5 KUNV, Jazz and More.

Music
0:15:21
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, So, the the the the the the the Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the the so

Niles
0:16:55
Welcome back. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles here on 91.5, KUV, Jazz and more. That was Herbie Hancock's Tell Me A Bedtime Story. Man, there's so much cool going on. You know me, we talk about the end of the tune, again, that trickling out, kind of beautiful, just riding off into the sunset kind of ending. I dig that.

Bijon
0:20:42
I would also like to add that that was from 1969, that album.

Niles
0:20:47
I'm glad you're telling me this because my story coming up on the song I'm going to present was released in 65. You and I are on the same wavelength. So it just goes to show that there's some music that's

Bijon
0:20:58
timeless that transcends any you could have put that out today and it would have been contemporary.

Niles
0:21:04
I would never have guessed that was in the 60s. There's no way. Right. So when we talk about jazz

Bijon
0:21:09
unfortunately it's thought that you know it's this free for all, you know, there's a caricature of what jazz is, is that, you know, coffee shop, you know, bootleg beatnik, you know, free jazz, whatever. And I think, unfortunately, that has given a not so savory taste in the mouths of many people that would normally want to check this out.

Niles
0:21:33
of this going into what you're saying, I said, man, you know, you brought up Dave Matthews earlier and it just so happened I was referencing a Dave Matthews tune. I don't like all his music but there's some that just like, wow, it really hits you. And I was watching a live version of this particular tune called Dreaming Tree and your friend, your boy Rishon is playing trumpet on that. Phenomenal trumpet player, he is phenomenal trumpet player.

Niles
0:22:02
Yeah.

Niles
0:22:03
So they're playing this tune, and it starts off very quiet. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And towards the end, 10 minutes in, it's just massive. And Dave is just singing his tail off, and Rishon is playing his tail off. And they're all feeding off each other, as you can imagine. And it just made me weep. I'm just like, man, because you can hear their souls coming out of this. It could be frustration, anger, love, all of it just coming out. I just get so blown away. So my question was the other day to you, I'm like do you ever really just cry over music? Because in my head I've known you for years and I don't see you tearing up over a tune, but you surprised me in saying you did. And yet I was waiting to have a debate with you about like if you said no I don't cry over music, then I was going to go into I'm wondering if it's because if you're so immersed in jazz music so to speak is it because there's not those long-winded melodies all the time and it's a little bit too complex too much going on to allow your emotions to just release and let go but you surprised me with a couple things that I was not thinking of you know well I think a lot of what you

Bijon
0:23:09
were saying was based on the perception of what most people when they hear jazz why a lot of young people go I hate jazz

Niles
0:23:15
Yeah

Bijon
0:23:16
Because they they've been introduced to the caricature of what jazz is right, right? And so you hear a piece like we just played tell me a bedtime story is like oh, okay. This is cool You know, yeah, and so there's elements of that that unfortunately people aren't made aware of it's unfortunate that the Leading perception is that it's this, if you're not in the know, you're not one of the, you know, you're not part of the jazz police, you're not in the know, you can't understand it, it's too hip for you, you know, that type of thing. Yeah. It's unfortunate because I've never interpreted it that way because I've played with so many different artists and write my own music. Yeah. I don't look at

Niles
0:24:01
From a mainstream perception, I guess.

Bijon
0:24:05
From a mainstream perception, yeah.

Niles
0:24:07
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So, you know, as I've been going down this road, for me, musically, on my new project with the Rabbits, or Belbatine Rabbits, recently I've been going back to the history of blues and jazz, and like, OK, I want to refresh my memory on some things. And I just kind of listened to some interviews and documentaries in the background. At one point I put on this mix, a 1960s mix of, I typed in jump blues. I'm like, all right, let me see what this is about, you know, let me really understand it. As I'm listening, there's an artist that popped up, because there was a song I heard, I'm like, wow, what is that? Just really cool piano, it's drums, bass, piano, and horns. So I look up this cat, his name is Ernie Washington. This song that I'm going to play here for us in a minute is a tune that was released back in 1965. So I'm like, I want to learn more about Ernie Washington. I can't find anything on him other than, I'm researching it, the only thing that comes up, I keep seeing Thelonious Monk's name come up. Like, what is that about? Like, why, I mean, what? So then I found a couple of, now I don't know how true this is or not in terms of is this guy the same but what I do know and this is something at one point maybe bring up to Beasley to John Beasley so as you know I'll give you a little history as you know back in between 1940 and 67 in New York the all the the city was requiring all the musicians back then that were performing cabarets, right, to carry an identification card, yeah, called the cabaret card. Now, so then, police officers would arrest these musicians, and this includes Duke Ellington, got flagged, Billie Holiday, and Thelonious Monk was getting flagged all the time, right? So he was so sick of it, he decides to come up Ernie Washington. So he would perform under the pseudonym of Ernie Washington. Now this is where it gets tricky for me because when you listen to the song I'm about to play for us, Ernie Washington that he released in 2018

Bijon
0:26:29
Interesting, maybe we need to have Christian on the show And have a chat with him. Yeah, it's it's interesting man

Niles
0:26:36
Cuz I can't but yet something there's a vocalist on this tune Which I can't find if it is Ernie Washington singing it or if it's someone else I don't know, but what a crazy. That's crazy story very well could be there's a lot of stuff going on back then. It's great. Well without further ado let's listen to this tune. I think it's great. It was like one of those things, a very simple tune of course but like man again the more I dug into this I'm like I can't find any history other than Monk and you know just anyway we'll let our listeners decide. So this song is called Lonesome Shack by Ernie Washington released back in 1965. You're listening to it here on B-Side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles here on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.

Music
0:27:24
My step is slow, my heart is heavy My step is slow, my gal has left me And she won't come back So I'm gonna leave this old loan of Jack Now I called my gal in Baltimore Well I called Cleveland and I called out her home Yes I begged and I pleaded and I cried and I moaned But she found somebody that she loved more Oh, I'm gonna move now, I'm gonna move, yeah I'm gonna move, child, I've got to play it cool I don't want no strangers hanging around My bag's all packed now, I've got the leaders in town. I've got the leaders in town. I've got the leaders in town. I've got the leaders in town. Oh, Shack.

Bijon
0:29:28
Oh yeah, that's timeless. Lonesome Shack.

Niles
0:29:31
On that note, we're really looking forward to an amazing concert. We'll be performing at the Smith Center coming up on September 10th.

Bijon
0:29:39
So we look forward to seeing all of you there.

Niles
0:29:41
Good morning everybody. Enjoy your Sunday.

Bijon
0:29:43
You've been listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles.

Niles
0:29:47
Chilling on the corner of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street. Chilling on the corner of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street. On 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.