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.

Bijon
0:00:10
Good morning and welcome.

Bijon
0:00:11
You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beebz and Niles.

Niles
0:00:23
Hot coffee, cool chatting, chilling on the corner of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:31
More.

Bijon
0:00:32
Did you hear that?

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:33
Mm-hmm. Got it. So I guess we're recording. I guess so. Yep, it says recording on the, uh...

Bijon
0:00:38
Oh yeah, I can see on my...

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:39
Little red light. Okay. Cool.

Niles
0:00:42
All right, let's do it.

Bijon
0:00:43
Let's just start with a good morning.

Niles
0:00:44
All right.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:45
Good morning, everybody. You're listening to...

Bijon
0:00:47
Good morning.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:48
Hey, hey, oh, oh, oh. We already done the intro, so we're going to say... Okay, okay, gotcha, gotcha.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:55
Good morning my man.

Chipmunk Voice
0:00:56
Good morning man. Good. Let's start with our sip of coffee. Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's it.

Bijon
0:01:02
This is our first rodeo, clearly.

Bijon
0:01:04
I look forward to spending some time sharing our thoughts, intimate and not so intimate, with everyone out there. We're going to jump right into it. On topics of absolutely nothing.

Niles
0:01:18
We have mastered the art of quantifying zero. I mean...

Bijon
0:01:24
Or in the words of my man, Miles Thomas, less than zero. That's a term you like to use. I do. It matters less than zero.

Niles
0:01:46
It's a new thing for me. That's a new thing. I'm going to apologize to our listeners now because I mean yesterday you and I jump on the call and go, oh my God, we got to do the

Bijon
0:01:56
radio show and what do we talk about? What are we talking about? I guess what was most enlightening about that is normally we don't have an issue with that. It's like we've got a concert coming up, we're writing music, you know. This is a rare occasion where we are caught with our

Bijon
0:02:37
proverbial pants down putting this together. But I think there's a See what you don't understand listeners is that many times we have conversations, deep conversations that we would love to have your input and feedback on. We're just usually not recording it, which is a challenge. Usually after a conversation where we've figured out all the world's problems and everything we go

Bijon
0:02:51
man that would have been a great that

Niles
0:02:55
would have been a great show for episodes a week we should have 10 radio shows episodes a week

Bijon
0:03:27
that's what's the most frustrating thing is we've got plenty of content

Niles
0:03:14
where it's like, you know, you drive around your neighborhood and you see these restaurants, oh man, next time we should go check out that restaurant. And then that day comes and you're hungry, and you're like, I don't know where to go. There's nothing to eat around here.

Bijon
0:03:24
Or like, yeah, we should go check out that breakfast joint. We still end up at the same joint.

Niles
0:03:29
Because we forget about it.

Bijon
0:03:32
I get off the plane, and like,

Bijon
0:03:34
yeah, let's go grab breakfast. We should check out that other spot. No, let's just go to our spot, right?

Niles
0:03:39
I think our listeners may agree, though. I mean, Eggworks is, come on, that's where it's at.

Bijon
0:03:44
Oh, that's the spot. And the muffin. And the last time, you know, I think I blew Niles' mind by not ordering it, because we were looking to fit into our outfits for the show the next day.

Niles
0:03:59
We didn't want to blow our carb. I don't need that button fitting that much tighter because I had the

Bijon
0:04:09
muffler before. Popping and taking someone out in the front row. Because I had a muffin

Niles
0:04:15
at Edwards, albeit delicious. Oh man, I will say, speaking of the show, we did have a blast. That was probably one of our most fun shows. Well, most people even said that to us like that was probably the best show they've seen of us which is interesting because you know it's like we've had some great shows but I just think the dynamic was just more fun and light and yet there's a lot of different

Bijon
0:04:38
music going on it was great man yeah and we definitely want to thank all of the listeners that that came to the show and everything and came up to us after the show and gave us instant instant feedback. Yeah. And so we're glad that you all feel comfortable sharing your thoughts with us, good, bad, or ugly. But after that show, it was great. Great,

Bijon
0:05:08
great feedback. Yeah. Great to hear Niles' new music and we had a few new personnel in the ensemble that allowed for us to stretch out a little bit more than we normally do. A lot of miles on stage, though. A lot of folks

Bijon
0:05:19
we were talking through all the logistics and numbers and everything, we were like, well there are a lot of mouths on stage. There are a lot of mouths on stage. Yeah. Yeah. That was a lot of personnel. Well worth everything. So thank you to our listeners. That's a lot of personnel on the payroll. A lot of personnel on the payroll. I'm like, okay. I know many of our listeners think we're just musicians here and we don't really have to be businessmen, but we do have a modicum of business at Acumen where reality is it.

Niles
0:05:49
Can we whittle this down to a trio?

Bijon
0:05:52
The next show will all be tracks.

Niles
0:05:55
Yeah, exactly.

Niles
0:05:56
We'll just have a DJ behind you and I.

Bijon
0:06:00
We get it. We get it.

Niles
0:06:04
That's fun. I mean, that was fun though, man. It was fun. Great fun. It was a lot of fun. But you, you know, of course, you were like, that was, you haven't done that in a minute, but like, alright man, I'm coming in the day before, we're going to just,

Niles
0:06:16
we got to do this, this, and this. We go to rehearsal, a three hour rehearsal, I might add. And then, luckily that night we had dinner, had some drinks with some friends. And then the next night after the show is like I'm at I got to head to the airport

Niles
0:06:28
What do you mean

Bijon
0:06:30
No, but I felt as though we did have much more time to chill we did and it was great it was great to be able to spend time with the the band and the cats and the kittens and That was funny when you said man your new music's great man in terms of the lyrics though

Niles
0:06:45
There's a there's a lot of cats and kittens on it.

Bijon
0:06:55
It was full Hepcat swing, jam, jump, jive, jam.

Niles
0:07:00
Well you know what's funny? Dude, what's funny is that in that genre, the swing, rockabilly kind of flavor, you go back and listen to all those songs, and a lot of it is, they're using the cats and the kittens and the bunnies and you know it's a simpler time Yeah, I'm the new one. I'm writing right now. I'm trying to refrain from that though. I'm trying to you know well

Bijon
0:07:23
I didn't I didn't say it to have you be overly conscious or self-aware

Niles
0:07:27
No, I know, but it's like I've got all the

Bijon
0:07:30
Happen at all the tunes that you wrote no the ones that we perform those looks like yeah

Niles
0:07:35
it's like you've got Sleek Cat Slippy and Swing Kitten and...

Bijon
0:07:46
It was cool, though. It was great. It was awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, you know, I mean, I think it just goes to show that as artists there are times in our lives when we're super influenced by

Bijon
0:08:10
different things and that resurfaced over the course of time in Royal Crown Review I was I was playing porn in those bands, you know those types of that that Even some of the ska that into the rockabilly, which is yeah, you know crossover stuff And you know, that's huge in Southern, California huge. Yeah, that whole

Bijon
0:08:28
resurgence. That was my bread and butter playing those gigs. So I'm very familiar with the vibe. And you know, you was a

Niles
0:08:41
guitarist and songwriter. I mean, we were super familiar. That was a part of our musical growth and just being, you know, as artists and creators, you were influenced by that stuff. Yeah, man. I will say selfishly that one of the things

Niles
0:09:06
again that was like, you know, playing those songs live for the first time didn't know what to expect at all, right? Just didn't... and it got a flavor of it for rehearsal, and I thought, okay, good, this is gonna be good, like everything's

Niles
0:09:10
cool, right? What I did notice, and I'm really glad about, is that I thought I would need more piano on these tunes, you know? I mean, thinking it's gonna add a

Bijon
0:09:26
certain kind of flavor, but what I

Niles
0:09:29
realized is, I just, if there was no the way I'm writing on guitar it fills up all that space. So yeah that's less personnel for me what I'm doing. The Velveteen Rabbits gig. But yeah that was a night. Where artistry and business intersect.

Niles
0:09:46
Yeah well because you know it's like

Bijon
0:09:50
oh man am I not gonna be able to you know. But with the horns and the

Niles
0:09:41
You know so it fills it. You know Should we should we get into a tune well? I mean you know or not yes, or not or not

Bijon
0:09:49
I mean, I think the reality is that getting back to what we're talking about you know influences Yeah, we've had and one of our common in influences someone that's crossed over and done my stuff It's stink sting had a birthday this week. I know we try and make these shows evergreen, but this is a time stamp for us just knowing that both of us once again have been influenced by the same artist and as a result have produced different types of music. I know with my big band Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, we had vocalist Kurt Elling, when we asked him

Bijon
0:10:29
what he wanted to sing on the album, he came up with the song, Until. He

Niles
0:10:39
wanted a big band arrangement of that. Until, which was from that movie, what, Kate and Leopold, I believe it

Bijon
0:10:54
was. Yep, but Sting wrote that, right? That was... I believe, yeah. Yeah, it's written and

Niles
0:11:07
performed by Sting, which is

Bijon
0:10:53
original track is that when he goes into his Renaissance period kind of thing

Niles
0:11:02
where that's what it is right I know that I know that is not necessarily towards the top of your list as

Bijon
0:11:17
favorites periods of sting I don't mind you know when he's it's like a man cool you want to play a lute um I'm sure

Niles
0:11:31
all right I've already given you enough

Bijon
0:11:16
This goes to show you, you've reached a point as an artist where like you can do whatever you

Niles
0:11:25
want. Yeah, yeah. He's like, yeah, I'm gonna play some lute on this album. Yeah, he ain't going anywhere. Don't know if you like it or not, you know. It doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter. Less than zero. Yeah, exactly.

Niles
0:11:51
Yeah, he could care less than zero. But you know what's cool is like listening or along with Kurt Elling singing on it, I was very pleasantly surprised at what you guys did because taking what literally sounds like a Renaissance

Bijon
0:12:03
period tune, right, and then put it into the jazz idiom. Contemporary big band idiom. Right, and then you've got, you know, Kurt And it's like, wow, that is a really cool... Well, let's listen without further ado. So this is off the Grammy Award-winning

Music
0:12:21
album, Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra. Whose band is that? That's my band. This is Stephen 5 Keys' arrangement of a tune entitled Until. the the

Music
0:12:59
the If I caught the world in a bottle and everything was still beneath the moon, Would it shine for me? If I were wise as Aristotle And understood the rings around the moon What would it matter if you loved me?

Music
0:13:47
Here in your heart with a million dreams to fulfill and a matter of moments until the dancing ends here in your arms when everything seems to be clear

Music
0:13:56
not a solitary thing would I fear except when this moment comes near the dancing's end If I caught the world in an hourglass Saddled up the moon so we could ride Until the stars grew dim, grew dim you

Music
0:14:35
the stranger the Everything shatters, you feel as if you've known him all your life The world's oldest lesson in history You're in the heart where the world is impossibly still With a million dreams to fulfill

Music
0:15:10
And a matter of moments until the dancing ends Here in your arms when everything seems to be clear Not a solitary thing do I feel Except when this moment comes near the dancing's end If I caught the world is impossibly still With a million dreams to fulfill And a matter of moments until the dancing ends

Music
0:16:51
Here in your arms Where everything seems to be clear Not a solitary thing do I fear Except when this moment comes near The dancing ends If I caught the world in an hourglass,

Music
0:17:18
Saddled up a moon, then we would ride Until the stars grew dim Until the time that Welcome back. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with Beejah Niles here on 91.5 KUNV

Niles
0:17:59
Jazz and More and that was the song Until by Sting, a new arrangement by Stephen Fivekey for the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, which him and Beejah on. That's his band Grammy Award-winning Cats and Kittens It sounds great man of Kurt Kurt Elling doing his thing is just I mean come on he's so unique you don't

Niles
0:18:32
find that much these days anymore these cats that are just unique you know I

Bijon
0:18:40
mean doing their own thing and it's

Niles
0:18:45
just man that level of originality there's really no other male vocalist out there doing that. I know I was watching this talks about like one of the questions was, you know, when you're writing music producing music for these major artists, are you thinking about the fans? You know, it's like, no, absolutely not. Like, I'm just, we do what we do for us and if you

Niles
0:19:05
like it, cool, and if you don't, it doesn't matter, you know, at the end of the day. And so someone like a Kurt Elling to me at that time coming in was the time when we were all, you just do your thing, and there was no like, oh, what if someone doesn't like it or this, you know, that kind of thing that seemingly there are those that walk on that eggshell.

Bijon
0:19:23
Well, in mainstream popular music, yeah, in mainstream popular music, there's definitely an element of a formula, if you will, that is oftentimes used, which is why so much of it sounds the same.

Niles
0:19:37
the thing. Well I remember when Buble was just coming up on the rise which was when Harry Connick Jr. was kind of deciding to maybe do some more acting at that time in his career you know and I wouldn't say on a downswing

Bijon
0:20:10
but just kind of took his foot off the

Niles
0:20:13
gas a little bit and I remember thinking then I'm like come on this new kid Michael Buble is trying to be like but Harry had his own thing still, had his own voice, his own, you know, quality.

Bijon
0:20:10
He played while he was singing. He played piano.

Niles
0:20:13
Yeah, yeah. So to me at that time I had a, I wasn't like a Buble fan because I'm like, ah, you're just, you know, trying to be like, you know, Harry Connick Jr. It bothered me. I dig him, but I still have that weird thing in my head of like, you know, in the 80s and 90s when those, when Harry Connick Jr. was really hitting at that time, you know?

Niles
0:20:35
And I know you played with him for a little bit too.

Bijon
0:20:37
I did, I did a few tours with him. Yeah. For his Oh My Nola album, which was so much fun.

Niles
0:20:43
Was that here in the States though? Was that just the stuff?

Bijon
0:20:45
It was in the States, well also Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand.

Niles
0:20:51
I just remember once, you and I were doing a photo shoot years ago in LA, and you had this suit made, like, oh man, I had this suit made while I was in China or whatever it was. It was like, remember that blue suit, you had some like a, not royal, but it was a dark royal blue suit that was, you know.

Bijon
0:21:13
Do you remember that? I do it was when we were the artists in residence at the Hollywood Bowl Clayton Henson Jazz Orchestra yeah we were the artists in residence and we would back up every all these musicians that would come through as part of the jazz series from Diana Krall to Ramsey Lewis to Benny Golson all these you know jazz luminaries and stuff like that. So we all had custom

Niles
0:21:43
suits made that were indicative of our style preferences. That's so funny though. Yeah, well man since we're on a, I don't know, I guess we can call this the

Niles
0:22:03
Sting celebration, the birthday celebration. Well the thing is, I mean, you know, to your point earlier, for me I only got into music because of Sting back in the police. You know, I mean

Niles
0:22:02
I wasn't paying attention to jazz or anything like that at the time. For me, I was, I was, jazz. It was rock and roll and, you know, new wave music and The Cure and, you know, The Clash and all those kind of bands and U2 and stuff, Duran Duran. But Sting, when he left the police and then went into his solo career and into Dream of the Blue Turtles album is when he was bringing on all those great jazz musicians, you know,

Niles
0:22:30
including Bradford Marcellus and Omar Hakeem and Daryl Jones, Kenny Kirkland, the late great Kenny Kirkland. And when that happened, that was back in I want to say 86,

Niles
0:22:56
that was when I, it somehow was like the floodgates were opened of where he's bringing pop and And when that happened, it just, even though I didn't tap into it to that degree, it was just like, wow, you can do this. It was like a, that was a new recipe at the time.

Niles
0:23:02
To me, yeah, I mean, you wrapping your head around, you getting into classical and jazz at an early age, to me is a lot of information. I mean, it takes a certain mindset and a discipline to do that. So when Sting was bringing in jazz inspiration into the pop medium, I could understand that. You know what I mean? It was 2 plus 2 equals 4 times 5. You know

Niles
0:23:30
what I mean? Like it was adding a bit more to it. Yeah, it's like, oh, I can understand this now, you know, because I

Bijon
0:23:43
don't want to say I would appreciate it any more than going back and listening to a Miles record or a Coltrane record, you

Niles
0:23:39
understand at that age it was like oh okay

Bijon
0:23:43
I see what's going on here you know it was easier for me to to get into it. Well and even for jazz artists who maybe didn't consider Sting music valid because he was a rock guy, just the nature of his band that he put together you know

Bijon
0:24:15
Christian McBride, Chris Bodie, yeah on of jazz musicians, then well, then you don't know jazz. So I think this thing was brilliant in putting that together and really helping elevate the project that way.

Niles
0:24:21
Yeah, and even back then he'd have interviews and you know, of course, all the magazines and everything's, oh, you're doing jazz. He's like, no, I have nothing to do with jazz. And I didn't understand it then, now I do. And he's absolutely right. It wasn't jazz. There was jazz integration or, you know,

Niles
0:24:50
whatever the chordal, you know, extensions would be, but there was no,

Music
0:25:00
wasn't jazz at all, you know. So I'd like to play this incredible incredible bluesy tune called Moon Over Bourbon Street. You're listening to B-Side Morning Brew with B.J. Niles here on 91.5 KMV Jazz and More. Enjoy. The stars may pass beneath the pale limelight I've no choice but to follow that call

Music
0:25:38
The bright lights, the people, and the moon and all For I know what I do must be wrong Oh, you'll never see my shape Or hear the sound of my feet While there's a moon over Bourbon Street Of our bourbon street

Music
0:26:03
It was many years ago That I became what I am I was trapped in this life, like an innocent lamb Now I can never show my face, I know You only see me walking, by the light of the moon The pain of my heart hides the eye of a beast, of a feast, of a sin

Music
0:26:40
But the hands of a priest, boy you'll never see my shame While there's a moon over Bourbon Street She walks everyday through the streets of New Orleans She's a little centennial from a family of means I have stood many times outside her window at night Struggling with my instinct, not paying her more light

Music
0:27:45
I'm a pale moonlight, how could I be this way? When I praise you God above, I must love what I destroy And destroy to take it out Oh, you'll never see my shame Or hear the sound of my feet While there's a beat on my burble-beat street Close us out, man.

Bijon
0:29:00
Yeah, well, thank you for joining us on our journey. Thank you for indulging Stiles and I on our wild card programming. We also want to thank KUNV for being our media sponsors of course. And if you're interested in

Niles
0:29:24
what we're doing collectively with the Jazz Republic, feel free to visit our website at thejazzrepublic.com. All right, good sir. Enjoy your morning. You too, my friend. Enjoy your

Bijon
0:29:34
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

Niles
0:29:48
of Lifestyle Ave and Music Street on 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.