B-Side Morning Brew w/ Bij & Niles

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

Music
0:00:10
Good morning and welcome.

Niles
0:00:11
You're listening to B-Side Morning Through with Gies and Niles. Hot coffee, cool chatting, chilling on the corner of Lifestyle Lab and Music Street on 91.5 KUND Jazz and More.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:33
We're in it now.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:34
Right. We're in it now. No turning back. Okay, B, would you like to be our special guest? Let's dive right in, man. Let's dive right in. Let's start with our sip of coffee.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:43
There you go.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:44
Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's it.

Bijon
0:00:46
We have a very special guest, long time friend, amazing collaborator, exceptional vocalist, entertainer, has worked everywhere, East Coast to West Coast and beyond. Europe. Europe, yep, that's what I'm saying. And just an amazing soul, an amazing spirit, and we're so glad that we can reconnect with this gentleman. I'm talking of none other than the incomparable David Pop-Tart T. Morris. Welcome, my friend. It's so good to see you. You look fantastic.

David T. Morris
0:01:22
Thank you so much. Same to you.

Bijon
0:01:24
Yeah, so you are, yeah, well, you have made your way to Vegas, like I said. The vortex of Vegas has sucked you in. How is it?

David T. Morris
0:01:32
It's just an amazing place. Vegas is the ultimate vacation destination resort. It's awesome.

Niles
0:01:46
Well Bij, I don't know if you know this, but before I left to move here, David, he and I were recording one afternoon. He was living in LA also at the time. And because he used to live here in Vegas a long time ago.

Bijon
0:02:01
That's right.

Niles
0:02:03
And so he was the one who, I'll never forget it, we were walking in some shopping center, so we're taking a break, and he told me, he's like, you should go to Vegas, you should go to Vegas. And then I went here, and then he, like soon after, he went to New York.

Niles
0:02:15
What was going on, why New York?

David T. Morris
0:02:18
New York was, I had taken a job that actually took me to the East Coast, and it was actually in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And life being what it was, the contract was finished in North Carolina, and so I decided to go north in pursuit of Broadway aspirations. I worked for Disney off and on for 20 years and wanted to give Broadway a try. Just some...

Niles
0:02:42
Wow. Sorry, weren't you King someone in the Disney show?

David T. Morris
0:02:46
I was King someone. I was King Agnar, actually in Frozen. You know, it was actually a groundbreaking moment in my career to be the king in Frozen, the musical at Disney. 2000 seat state of the art theater. And they had chose to do color blind casting. And after years of experience and also timing was right, and they decided that I was going to be one of the one of the black king

David T. Morris
0:03:17
It was an Asian Elsa There was a black Elsa a black king Asian king and and white But you know was a really incredible moment in my life spending 20 years working for an organization Where something like this would have never happened and it happened. So then you went to New York

Niles
0:03:34
I went to New York many of ex-Disney folks Disney cast members would go to New York in search of some Broadway.

David T. Morris
0:03:42
Absolutely. With major shows like Moulin Rouge at the time and Hamilton and all these long-running shows, it was definitely a dream that I was pursuing, as well as just giving New York a try. Born and raised on the West Coast, it was absolutely spectacular to be on the East Coast and experiencing the architecture and the vibe and the nightlife and the music and the culture. Never, you know, it's like I had never lived there.

David T. Morris
0:04:14
I traveled there, but living there and being submerged in all those things was really an incredible experience. Unfortunately, the pandemic had other things in store for us. You know, it being a major shutdown, you know, in New York, it definitely was some major sidetracking as far as the land of submissions through online submissions and videotapes.

David T. Morris
0:04:37
So after that experience of being there and doing that, and, you know, I got a feel for New York, I was ready to come back West.

Niles
0:04:45
I remember just a few months ago, because you've only been out here now, what, maybe a month or two, two months now, something like that?

David T. Morris
0:04:50
I mean, time flies. I rolled into town January 15th, Martin Luther King Day. What? I rolled into town on Martin Luther King Day. I drove across the country with me and my dog and rented a SUV, everything that fit in the SUV along with her.

David T. Morris
0:05:09
Six days, drove across the country and rolled into Sunset and Martin Luther King. I mean it felt like free at last.

Bijon
0:05:17
That's awesome. Well you look fantastic. You look happy. Thank you. That's what's most important man. That's how I remember David T. Morris is. Thank you. The happy dude.

Niles
0:05:27
So it's good to see that. No and honestly it's great to have you here. I mean it's been a blessing for me. I mean it just is your energy and you know it's just so amazing. It's just it's great to have what I consider family in town you know. Same, likewise. And I know months ago middle of last year maybe around this time you were kind of hinting at maybe I should come back to Vegas and go to Vegas and I said yes you need to come out to Vegas

Niles
0:05:55
kind of thing and so now yeah so you've been doing a lot of well you're getting into some of these gigs in town right in terms of like just trying different things. I saw you on Instagram dressed up as a robot or something for some... It's great though.

Bijon
0:06:13
David is truly a diverse entertainer. He can handle many roles as we know. So it's great to see him.

David T. Morris
0:06:22
I think the world of entertainment and especially working for a company like Disney, working on major cruise lines, traveling, going to Europe, Asia, events, weddings, candy buffets, you know, whatever it takes to make people happy. Right. I've been so fortunate to have been able to tap into all these areas. You know, as well as being, you know, production assistant, picking up a truck and loading

David T. Morris
0:06:47
a truck up full of everything that goes behind the scenes to create an awesome event. And it's been really educational as far as everything that it takes, you know, to put on the wow. So it feels really good to be back in Vegas and have adapted all those skill sets and to start reaching out to different event companies and producers, you know, so that that way I'm not just considered a vocalist or an actor or a dancer.

David T. Morris
0:07:16
You know, it's like these are things that I love to do, but it really does take all these different skill sets to, you know, make a living.

Niles
0:07:25
It's great that you have all of that, you know what I mean? All of that kind of vaudevillian flavor, if you will.

David T. Morris
0:07:30
Exactly.

Niles
0:07:32
Pretty much do anything, you know, which is cool. I want to introduce a project that the three of us embarked on a number of years ago, and I think we shared on this show back in the day It was probably what 10 years, well 10-12 years ago something like that easily on a particular kind of music, what would you call it?

Bijon
0:07:50
Exploration. I mean we it was music that we all love to do and we put that group together. It was you know dance

Niles
0:07:57
some hip-hop flavors, some R&B, some soul, and it just so happened that my voice and Pop-Tart's voice just really, really goes together and wrote these songs. And so I think we called the project Style Suit. And unfortunately, we

Niles
0:08:34
did a whole five-song EP. We have a beautiful video footage that was professionally shot, but the production Especially in L.A., right?

Bijon
0:08:29
I mean, yeah.

Niles
0:08:30
So who knows? Maybe there you know, maybe it'll maybe there's a resurrection here in town in Vegas. But I think we should introduce some. There's a song, one of the songs that we'll play today for Style Suit is called. Well, you guys want to start with home or do you want to start with hypnotizing? Let's start with hypnotizing.

Niles
0:08:53
Because Pop-Tart introduces the tune with his beautiful voice. You're listening to B-side Morning Brew with Beej and Niles here on 91.5 K1V Jazz and More. This is a song of ours called Hypnotizing.

Music
0:09:07
Like a picture, don't you know? Don't you know? It isn't real, it isn't real Can't turn you off Oh, it's beautiful, beautiful New York, I've seen your pictures on the wall

Music
0:09:26
You stash it down the runway with a red dress on Your face on the cover of every magazine You smile undressed And your hair is such a mess You feel the weight of fame pressing on I see your world and hypnotize, so alone, so alone

Music
0:10:16
Fly to Paris, to do your next dress song You model down the stage to your fashion song No love, no tears, gifts are wrapped inside your dreams Can you feel the weight of fate, pressing on? I see a world that's getting hypnotized I've been so alone, I'm like a disturbed note I see your world being hypnotized

Music
0:11:07
I've been so alone, I'm like a disturbed note Where you gonna go when the mirror leaves you all alone? Run away, you beg to pay, fight to lose everything you made

David T. Morris
0:11:26
Spin around in a circle of fear, the price I pay

Music
0:11:32
I see a world that I've never seen before I see a world that I've never seen before I see a world that I've never seen before I see life in the light I see a world in my eyes That's a world on film

Music
0:12:31
Oh, baby, that's it, baby I see a world in my eyes That's a world on film Oh, baby, that's it, baby I see a world in my eyes I will hypnotize you

Music
0:12:47
So I'll go somewhere no you won't I'll see your world hypnotize you So I'll go somewhere low Beautiful Beautiful Welcome back. You're listening to B-Side Morning Group with Beej and Niles on 91.5 KUND Jazz and Morph.

Bijon
0:13:15
Man, it's great to hear that song, Hypnotizing. That brings it way back. That brings it way back. Man, David laced that up. David laced that up. That's amazing. So great to hear you, man. We've got to do some more of that live. We'll do it live!

Niles
0:13:37
Our listeners need to know that years ago when we did a couple shows, we were in LA and did this show. Bijon and I were actually, the show was in downtown LA and Bijon...

Bijon
0:13:46
At Seven Grand, Seven Grand, right in the heart of downtown.

Niles
0:13:49
Yeah, Bijon and I earlier that day were in Laguna Beach doing something, a project he was doing. And of course me being a bit of the devil, if you will, I'm like, come on, man, let's go up to the rooftop, you know, the rooftop hotel and Laguna. Let's just have some wines, have some wine and some food. We're overlooking the ocean and getting more and more tipsy, more and more tipsy. I'm like, man, let's just not do the show.

Niles
0:14:14
I don't want to do the show. Let's just hang out here. He's like, we got to do the show. Of course, me being the irresponsible one, ultimately flew down basically to L.A. to make that show. Barely.

Niles
0:14:25
We barely made that to walk in this cat David T. Morris, our special guest today. We had no idea before we go on stage. He brings up this bowl.

Bijon
0:14:35
It's a chalice. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. It was a bit that it was a bit dazzled chalice. Am I right, David? It was...

David T. Morris
0:14:52
I'm thinking... It was filled.

Bijon
0:14:54
It was filled with this amazing assortment of like snacks that you, you know, tease it, M&M's, you know, it was just, it was awesome. I have, now I think about it, I believe I have some throughout the whole bar. Oh yeah yeah no yeah yeah no he had transformed the space right into snack central and it was part and and then the brother came out in this long flowing velvet robe and and the boots and the boots you had those big thigh high boots on. I definitely. Knee high boots maybe not thigh, knee high.

Bijon
0:15:39
Oh, they were knee high. And Niles and I looked at each other and we just were like, what is going on?

Niles
0:15:48
It's like, man, this cast is like coming out from Parliament Funkadelic.

Bijon
0:15:52
That's right, it was some P-Funk. It was straight out of P-Funk.

Bijon
0:15:55
It was great, it was amazing.

David T. Morris
0:15:57
I mean, you know what, Niles,

David T. Morris
0:15:58
we were just talking about this recently, the reality of Prince and Michael Jackson.

Bijon
0:16:04
Yes.

David T. Morris
0:16:05
You know, an era of pop stars and rock stars that really put on a spectacular. And years of working at Disney and working in these big venues, I just come from a background of understanding that no venue is too small to put on

Bijon
0:16:25
a spectacular.

David T. Morris
0:16:26
And I mean, the fact that you

Bijon
0:16:28
remember it means that I accomplished my Oh, man, BG

Niles
0:16:32
mission, a copy of stated with me at that at my apartment back then. And I remember the next morning we're having coffee, we couldn't, we could barely hold down the coffee. We were hard, because we we were, we didn't know what happened was like, did we dream that like, it was like a dream sequence. It was a chalice with Chex Mix on stage, right? Did you see that? You saw that, right? That wasn't just me. It was great, man. It was the perfect thing.

Niles
0:17:03
But fast forward to today, or even this past holiday weekend, Memorial, whatever, the Memorial Day weekend we just had. Pop Tart and I went to meet up downtown for a brunch and we started talking about just what's going on and what you know his aspirations while he's in town what he really wants to accomplish And a couple things that in the conversation that popped up that we've all been through we've all been through this Yes, I said man. Why don't you reach out to that girlfriend of yours that you know saw you that night? We're all hanging out and and she you know she's she's been here

Niles
0:17:41
in town she they used to work at Dizzy and together she does some you know some great things here in town right that could that could essentially help pop tart even if it's just advice I'm like why don't you just reach out to her. I can't reach out I don't want to do that I want her to feel XYZ and it was it was a reminder I'm like man why do we do this to ourselves it's like first of all I said she's not gonna take it that way because you're a good friend and that's not who you are.

Niles
0:18:04
It's genuine. But we've all been guilty of not reaching out to peers or friends of ours to either ask for advice or some help in some way or another or get some inside information on what's going on because of, I don't know. What do you think, B?

Bijon
0:18:20
because all three of us have had amazing success at what we do. We've been at the pinnacle of what we do. And when we, when we take that leap of faith, of putting out our own material, right, it, it, we reach a point of analysis paralysis. I taught it that, you know, you've heard me say that several times before, and we feel as though we, if we haven't done it all on our own, then we're a failure.

Bijon
0:18:52
Not realizing that it takes an entire community of people advocating for you as an artist to help at least put it out there. Now, and the other realization is that not everyone's going to like what you do. And that's okay. And it's so hard for us just to take a step back and go, hey, I'm doing what I love to do.

Bijon
0:19:11
When we did Style Suit, we loved that music. We loved performing it. I remember when we played that night at 7 Grand, that place was packed. People were losing their freaking minds, you know? And it was just true to what we wanted to do. We loved the music. And we look back at all those, now as you and I were talking about this, you look back at all the amazing performances that we've had, all of those amazing performances were, uh, when we just did what was true to what we

Niles
0:19:35
loved to do. We weren't driven by that. And not afraid to ask questions or do what we need to do or, you know, reach out to a friend here and there, hey, can you help with this? Or can you do this? Or, you know, can we pay you, you know, Tuesday for a hamburger today? You know, whatever it's gonna be. But, you know, that's what, that's what, you know, David and I were talking about. And I'm hoping, David, when we were talking about this, I hope it brought back some confidence in you, realizing that, yeah, you don't have to hide from this or not ask someone for help or

Niles
0:20:08
advice or whatever the case is, you know?

David T. Morris
0:20:10
Yeah, in this moment, just hearing what you said, it really reminds me of the importance of being fearlessly authentic. And

Bijon
0:20:19
yes, that's a great way to describe it. Yeah. And you know,

David T. Morris
0:20:23
in this moment, it's really reminding me that that's also the main reason why I chose to come back West and why I chose Las Vegas is because being in New York and Broadway aspirations not to say that not to have any judgment against it but it's definitely character driven and they're very specific songs specific characters specific roles and I will be honest and saying that I felt like I was getting lost and trying to perpetrate and be one of these. You know, the idea of coming back West and reconnecting with you and reconnecting

David T. Morris
0:21:01
with myself is reminding myself, even, you know, with Kandi and Velvet Robes is, you know, reminding myself there is so much joy in being fearlessly authentic.

Bijon
0:21:14
Absolutely. I love that. I think we can do t-shirts. Fearlessly authentic.

David T. Morris
0:21:20
I mean, here we go.

Niles
0:21:21
I think on that note, I would love to play another StyleSuit tune.

Bijon
0:21:25
Alright, you're listening to B-Side Morning Groove with Beej and Niles on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More. This song we're about to play is another tune from our StyleSuit project entitled, Hall.

Music
0:21:38
entitled all I do Scent of you lingers in my mind Fragrant left behind Breathed inside my soul Picture of you burned inside my head

Music
0:21:59
I can't let go I'm your love, love, love Within your heart, within your mind I'm your love, love, love I'm your love, love, love I'm your love, love, love I'm your love, love, love I'm your love, love, love Within your heart Within your heart I call

Music
0:22:56
Memories of you Spilled and left to stand Remnants of what remains There's one remain

Music
0:23:08
Smile and kiss of life

Music
0:23:10
Memories dance within my ears The words that brought me tears Secrets in the love Love, love, love I cannot let go Of your love, love, love Within your heart, within your heart I'm home, I'm home

Music
0:24:02
Love, love, love I cannot let go Love, love, love In your heart I'm home Love, love, love, I cannot let go Love, love, love, I cannot let go

Music
0:24:55
Love, love, love, within your heart, within your heart I'm whole Welcome back, you're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Bij and Niles here on 91.5 KUNV

Niles
0:25:16
Jazz and More. And that was our project called Style Suit with myself, Bijan on flugelhorn on that particular tune and David T. Morris, our special guest today on vocals. And man, that song is so fun and beautiful. It just really does bring back a lot of memories and inspiration. Truth be told, I just forgot how light and airy those songs were.

Niles
0:25:43
They were just fun, beautiful and fun. Yeah, I mean, I look back on when we were doing that project, and we were just going for it.

Bijon
0:25:52
I mean, original music, Dave was just bringing the heat with the vocals. I mean, it was just great and the horn parts were killing and the vibe, the groove was infectious. I don't know, we got to bring some of that back. Well, in fact, we have a few, we want to tell people about, the audience about a couple of pop-up shows we have. Well, so July 11th we're going to make an appearance at, well should we tell them or should we keep it a secret? Should we tell them or keep it a secret?

Niles
0:26:28
We should tell them.

Bijon
0:26:29
We'll tell, okay.

Niles
0:26:30
I think we're good.

Bijon
0:26:31
We are going to make an intimate appearance at a very intimate spot, a staple here in Las Vegas for the music community, the Dispenser Lounge. Our good friend and collaborator Uli Geissendorfer spearheaded that evening and we're going to be performing with the Jazz Republic and a few special guests, including David Pop-Top Morris and some other special guests we'll bring you, we'll let you know about as we get a little closer to the date. It's going to be an amazing show and we're so

Bijon
0:27:03
spoiled by performing at the Smith Center like we normally do but this is like I was talking about earlier some of our best performances that we've talked about have been in the most intimate setting. So we're really looking forward to bringing the heat in an intimate space like this.

Bijon
0:27:19
It's gonna be pretty cool.

Niles
0:27:20
So for those of our fans that have seen us at many times over at the Smith Center, this is a great opportunity to see us in a very intimate setting. Yeah, we're gonna blow the roof off the joint. I mean, that's just the way it goes.

Niles
0:27:32
That's just how it's gonna happen. And we do have our show at Smith Center on September 10th, and we'll be letting everyone know when tickets will be available for that particular show, too. And that's going to be an incredible night with many special guests. So we'll unveil the details of that as we draw near to the date.

Bijon
0:27:53
I think what we've found since Niles moved to Vegas and we started Jazz Republic Entertainment Group, that the community of artists that are in Las Vegas are second to none. It's a very supportive group of people. We've gotten to know them very well and it's been fun collaborating with and being able to showcase some of the stuff. And the premise being presenting original music and that's the key.

Bijon
0:28:23
audiences to to see vocal Musicians and artists performing original music and I think it's going to be a treat. You don't want to miss it. Absolutely so if you'd like to

Niles
0:28:33
Learn more or learn more about us. Feel free to visit www.thejazzrepublic.com Where you can learn more about us as well as also listen to previous radio shows that we have, previous episodes. You want to close this out, Bij? Let's close by thanking our amazing friends, artists, compadres,

Bijon
0:28:52
David, Pop-Tart, Morris for joining us and it's so great to have you in Vegas, in the Vegas vortex and I'm looking forward to many more things to come artistically with this amazing gentleman. I wish we had more time with you on this

Niles
0:29:22
radio show. We'll bring you back on the show. You can never have enough David T.

Bijon
0:29:26
Morris. Can I get a ho in here?

Music
0:29:29
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
0:29:39
of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.