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"Knee Deep" The Jay Morris Group: 4-Star CD Review!
Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's CD Reviews.
March 1, 2024: THE JAY MORRIS GROUP: LET ME TALK
Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new. Let Me Talk takes me back to the days when we actually listened to albums from beginning to end. The title says it all. This is music for intelligent, sensitive people who can see the shadings in life. It's southern soul music with unusual influences: Gil Scott-Heron, Tribe Called Quest, Sly Stone, De La Soul, Lauryn Hill, Bishop Bullwinkle, Outkast. Looking for mindless "party hardy"? You won't find it here.
The trio (K. Monique, Zee Brownlow and leader Jay Morris) is uncommonly verbal. To listen to them is to descend a rabbit warren of conversation. A Jay Morris song or album has more in common with a seventies' Robert Altman film like M.A.S.H. where the actors are always talking, interrupting and overlapping one another than it does with traditional southern soul. Consider February's #2 southern soul single "In Front Of Me," a fascinating, female-oriented takeoff on southern soul classic "Sho' Wasn't Me". One of my favorite couplets is: "Jay, that's his co-worker. / They have lunch from time to time".
Where else in the universe of southern soul music would you ever hear a lyric like that? Yet what's surprising is the substantial following this highly literate group has attained in a genre not known for being conducive to poetry beyond the pithy one-liner. The band has produced four fruitful albums in five years, and with fifty million views and counting, their signature single "Knee Deep" rivals the hit songs of King George, Tucka and other A-list southern soul headliners.
The biggest single (so far) from LET ME TALK is "Talk My Shit" ("Talk My Ish" for all audiences on YouTube and Apple), which debuted at #4 in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles for September '23 . "Talk My Shit" has all the earmarks of a Jay Morris tune: the roundelay of confident vocals, the mid-tempo, almost ballad-like, cradle-rocking of the instrumental track and---last but not least---the perennial riffing of the keyboard/organ, although "Talk My Shit" adds a little more emphasis on lead guitar and piano.
 That ever-present keyboard sound---the "kazoo" sound, I call it---is both Jay Morris's signature of fame and the group's ball and chain. It's hard to imagine a JMG tune without that insistent keyboard, yet it can grow tiresome, and likely, if projected indefinitely into the future, unnecessarily restrictive. The kazoo-keyboard is given a refreshing swagger in "For Granted," which positions it as another potential hit single from the CD. But in general drums and bass are used begrudgingly, as in "Freaky Secrets, where you have to strain to hear a little bass at the end of the more dominant keyboard bass-line notes.
There's a hint of what this band could do on a more blues-based, mid-to-fast tempo in the K. Monique vehicle "You My Man," which recalls the trio's debut single, "4 By 4" (aka "Ms. Wendy"). But for the most part LET ME TALK adheres to the sameness in instrumentation and tempo that have characterized the Jay Morris Group's storytelling format from the beginning.
Given the off-the-charts vocal talent of the group, it may behoove them to gradually add more instrumental depth and options---perhaps even explore faster, dancing tempos. That would be something people, I think, would be curious and even excited to hear. In the meantime, LET ME TALK cements the trio's reputation as the pre-eminent group in the solo artist-dominated southern soul market.
---Daddy B. Nice
Buy The Jay Morris Group's LET ME TALK album at Apple.
See the LET ME TALK track list in Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide.
Listen to all the tracks from the Jay Morris Group's "Let Me Talk" album on YouTube.
Read more about the Jay Morris Group.
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Questions?
Comments?
Or Information for Daddy B. Nice?
e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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February 25, 2024: NEW ALBUM ALERT!:Buy The Jay Morris Group's new LET ME TALK album at Apple.
LET ME TALK TRACK LIST: 1.
Talk My Ish
2.
In Front Of Me
3.
In Front Of Me Pt. 2
4.
Thought I Knew Her
5.
Meet Me In The Middle
6.
For Granted
7.
Ain't No Way
8.
Freaky Streets
9.
You My Man
10.
Keep Your Hands to Yourself
11.
Can I Vibe
12.
I Used To Be A Mess
Daddy B. Nice notes:
See Daddy B. Nice's CD Review of LET ME TALK.
March 22, 2024: NEW ALBUM ALERT!:Buy The Jay Morris Group's new LET ME TALK album at Apple.
TELL MY STORY TRACK LIST: 1.
Why
2.
Damned
3.
Knee Deep Part 3
4.
If The Tables Turn
5.
Girl You're Enough
6.
Doctor
7.
I Love It Here
8.
Wanna Be The Woman
9.
I'm Doing Me
10.
Toxic
11.
It's Over
Daddy B. Nice notes: With the phenomanal "Knee Deep" (now running at 32 million YouTube views) the Jay Morris Group was the hottest thing in southern soul music as 2022 began. Then the hurricane known as King George made landfall and they were blown away like the sand and the dunes, out into the ocean, out of sight, out of mind. Now, on Thanksgiving 2022, they return with their third studio album, Tell My Story. The dominant first impression of the set is more of the same. Every track is a ballad. The three-part harmonies (Jay, Zee & K-Monique) follow the formula of the group's second album, Long Story Short: contemplative lyrics on personal relationships---melodies and tempos with scarcely any variation. Listening to the album is like listening to one huge, prolonged song.
"4 Fa 4," the group's more lively-tempoed original hit, would sound radical placed amongst these tunes set in the long, strong shadow of "Knee Deep". Speaking of which, the group's blockbuster gets yet another update in "Knee Deep Part 3," where the lost loved one comes back only to be spurned by Zee, who has moved on. (Very lifelike.) The most promising potential single, "I Love It Here," breaks some refreshing new ground production-wise. (Watch for it in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles for December '22.) "Wanna Be The Woman," showcasing K-Monique, adds a little zest, and "Why," the opening cut, appears to be the group's bid for a new "Knee Deep".
Listen to the Jay Morris Group singing "I Love It Here" on YouTube.
Listen to all the tracks from the Jay Morris Group's new TELL MY STORY album on YouTube.
Listen to all the tracks from The Jay Morris Group's new TELL MY STORY album at Spotify.
Buy The Jay Morris Group's new TELL MY STORY album at Apple.
See the chart.
September 1, 2021: Daddy B. Nice's Profile
Listen to the Jay Morris Group featuring Zee Brownlow singing "Knee Deep" on YouTube.
Southern soul music has undergone a radical transformaton in the last decade. Its previous audience has remained rock steady, but an entirely new and wider audience has migrated to the genre. Thus, we have the phenomenon of Big Pokey Bear and "My Sidepiece" (headed towards a 100 million You Tube views), Bishop Bullwinkle (gone but not forgotten) and "Hell Naw To The Naw Naw" (with similar YouTube numbers). We have Tucka stealing the hearts of tens of thousands of new fans, almost unnoticed until the clamor was too great to be ignored. And we have lesser but no less phenomenal cases like Ronnie Bell and his pro-women's anthem "I'll Pay The Shipping Cost," which catapulted him into an instant headliner.
What do these new performers have in common? Their numbers (YouTube views, retail sales, booking fees) dwarf the numbers of the stalwart veterans (people like O.B. Buchana, Willie Clayton, Vick Allen, Ms. Jody) upon whose shoulders they piggy-backed. That's not to say the talent and work of the new mega-artists isn't deserving. Just the opposite. Music, like all entertainment, is based on "What have you done for me lately?" But it's also true that contemporary southern soul music had to go through a fragile, post-Malaco period (roughly 1995-2015, when all the great stars of the older generation died) just fighting for survival. And then...came the young... Or the young became "grown folks"... Or something like that.
This is the world in which the Jay Morris Group has rolled their Trojan horse of new music through the gates of the southern soul fortress, taking over the kingdom with harmonies both soulful and relaxed---De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest meets southern soul---one of the most in-demand acts on the chitlin' circuit. A year ago, people marveled at how "Knee Deep" had hit the 2-million mark in YouTube views; today it has surpassed 10 million and shows no signs of flagging. (DBN notes: less than a month later, make that nearly 12 million.) New line-dance videos based on "Knee Deep" appear daily. Whoever heard of line-dancing to a ballad? And yet, there we are, in locale after locale, dancing to "Knee Deep".
The other gasp heard throughout the chitlin' circuit is, "It's a group!" Like... Isn't there a southern soul law against that? And yet the same thing happened a few years ago. A trio came out of nowhere (which happened to be Baton Rouge) and nobody in the core southern soul scene was the wiser until the band had already amassed record numbers. The group? The Louisiana Blues Brothers: Pokey Bear, Tyree Neal and Adrian Bagher. They disbanded after one album, but Love On The Bayou sparked a renaissance in Louisiana-based southern soul music that is still evident today.
Like Food For The Soul is such an album, and we can only hold our collective breath that the trio of Jay Morris, K-Monique and Zee Brownlow stick it out. They're a tight-knit group, and when I hear them harmonize they remind me of my best friend for many years (now departed), Joe Russell of the acapella group The Persuasions. Joe couldn't couldn't pass a woman on the street without accosting her jocularly, and the music he did with The Persuasions was similarly light-hearted and social in the most positive sense, like standing on a street corner with buddies, harmonizing.
Jay Morris, Zee Brownlow and KMonique have the same rapport. You can imagine them in high school in an alley in their hometown like the one in the "Happy Weight" video, stretching their vocal cords. Their music, while disarmingly laid-back, grows on you as the melodies and harmonies sink in. Like the Louisiana Blues Brothers, all three personalities are unique and talented enough to go it on his or her own. K-Monique has a solo single and a number of collaborations with other recording artists under her belt. Zee Brownlow is the incandescent singer who renders a tour de force on "Knee Deep". Jay Morris is the singer/leader and producer.
If they can succeed at staying together, and continue putting out good music, the Jay Morris Group could portend a change in the way legitimately-talented but second or third-tier southern soul artists think about their careers. If joining a popular group brings attention otherwise lacking in a solo career---attention like the Jay Morris Group has garnered---these aspiring artistf may form "super-groups" of their own.
By the way, don't check the Comprehensive Index to see where "Knee Deep" originally charted on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles. I didn't have a clue. Reminds me of Pokey Bear, when I favored "They Call Me Pokey," not "My Sidepiece," as the probable breakthrough. But once "Sidepiece" got embedded in the consciousness, I came around. I came back to the herd and found all kinds of reasons to enjoy "Sidepiece". It's been that way with "Knee Deep" (I would have guessed "4 Fa 4") and it shows you how much the southern audience values lyrics, i.e. a message, a story. (Not that "4 Fa 4" doesn't also have something to say.) "Knee Deep" hits some universal chord, some emotional experience, that resonates in the communal memory like "Hole In The Wall," "Stand Up In It" or "Hell Naw To The Naw Naw". Jay, Zee and K-Monique accomplished that with some righteous music, and youngsters and upstarts though they may be considered by veterans of the scene, the Jay Morris Group has earned the right to be raised up and recognized by the southern soul faithful as one of the top acts on the circuit.
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For the latest updates (including biography, discography, album sellers, CD reviews, YouTube videos and contemporaneous reports) on the Jay Morris Group, scroll down this page. To automatically link to the Jay Morris Group's charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations on the website, go to "Jay Morris Group" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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Note: The Jay Morris Group also appears in
Daddy B Nice's former artist guide. (Click here.)
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--Daddy B. Nice
About The Jay Morris Group: 4-Star CD Review!
The Jay Morris Group hails from Greenwood, Mississippi. The group consists of brother Jay Morris and sister K. Monique ("same mom, same dad" Jay adds) and Jay's best friend Zee Brownlow. In September of 2018 their first single, Ms. Wendy, charted on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles under the artist title Jay Morris featuring Mario Brownlow. Subsequently, the song was released as "4 Fa 4" by the Jay Morris Group and went on to collect over 5 million views on its various YouTube pages.
Meanwhile, a companion single, "Happy Weight," was released and became equally popular, charting on Daddy B. Nice's Singles in January of 2020. Both songs catered to a subject dear to southern soul fans: that weight and heft in a woman can be beautiful and sexy. As the lyrics to "Happy Weight" said,
"Ain't nothing wrong with a little extra meat,
It turns me on how she's squeezing in those jeans."
Both songs were rolled into a bountiful, sixteen-song collection titled Like Food To My Soul, published in 2019. And yet, as popular as "4 Fa 4" and "Happy Weight" became, their fame was eclipsed by the new single, "Knee Deep," a sensitive ballad sung by Zee Brownlow exploring the nuances between friendship and love. The tune blew up its YouTube page, gaining some 12 million views on its official music video. "Knee Deep" struck chords with the audience no southern soul song had accomplished since Bishop Bullwinkle's "Hell Naw To The Naw Naw," catapulting the Jay Morris Group to headliner status on the chitlin' circuit. 1,750 comments, an unheard of number of responses, accrued on its YouTube page. And line dances, also featured on YouTube, accumulated at an astounding rate, an anomaly for a ballad.
A remix of "Knee Deep," with percussion-heavy samples of rhythm tracks from Soul Sonic Force and other vintage rap soundtracks, was published in 2021. "Knee Deep (Soul Lion Bass Mashup)" featured Zee Brownlow on lead vocal and was slated to chart at #2 in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles in September 2021, as this profile was being written.
Discography:
4 Fa 4: The Single (Jay Morris Group 2018)
Happy Weight: The Single (Jay Morris Group 2018)
Like Food To My Soul (Jay Morris 2019)
Cabbage Greens & Cornbread: The Single (Jay Morris 2019)
Southern Soul Party feat. Jeter Jones: The Single (Jay Morris Media 2020)
Tell My Story (William J. Morris, 2022)
Tidbits
August 15, 2021: 1. Jay Morris Group on YouTube
Listen to Jay Morris Group feat. Jeter Jones singing "Southern Soul Party" on YouTube.
Listen to the Jay Morris Group on the road, then settingup and singing live in Alabama on YouTube.
Listen to The Jay Morris Group singing "Happy Weight" on YouTube.
Listen to Zee Brownlow and the Jay Morris Group singing "Knee Deep" on YouTube.
Watch Mississippi line dancers stepping to Jay Morris Group's "Knee Deep" on YouTube.
Watch the Too Lit Crew at Harris Place in Tunica, MS line dancing to Jay Morris Group's "Knee Deep" on YouTube.
Watch the Dallas Powerhouse Ryders line-dancing to the Jay Morris Group's "Knee Deep" on YouTube.
Learn the "Knee Deep" line dance with Ms. Bailey B on YouTube.
Listen to the Jay Morris Group singing "4 Fa 4 (Ms. Wendy)" on YouTube.
Listen to KMonique singing "My Lovin' Ain't Cheap" on YouTube.
Listen to KMonique guest-singing on Mississippi Hummin' Boy's "You Know What I Like" on YouTube.
Listen to KMonique guest-vocalizing on C-Wright's "Sneaking Around" on YouTube.
Listen to the Jay Morris Group singing "Knee Deep" live onstage on Facebook.
Listen to Zee Brownlow and the Jay Morris Group singing "Knee Deep ( Soul Lion Bass Mashup)" on YouTube.
2. CD REVIEW
Reprinted from Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
December 20, 2021: SNEAK PEEK!THE JAY MORRIS GROUP: Long Story Short (Jay Morris Group) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven. The Jay Morris Group hails from Greenwood, Mississippi. The group consists of brother Jay Morris and sister K. Monique ("same mom, same dad" Jay adds) and Jay's best friend Zee Brownlow. In September of 2018 their first single, Ms. Wendy, charted on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles under the artist title Jay Morris featuring Mario Brownlow. Subsequently, the song was released as "4 Fa 4" by the Jay Morris Group and went on to collect over 5 million views on its various YouTube pages.
Meanwhile, a companion single, "Happy Weight," was released and became equally popular, charting on Daddy B. Nice's Singles in January of 2020. Both songs catered to a subject dear to southern soul fans: that weight and heft in a woman can be beautiful and sexy. Both songs were rolled into a bountiful, sixteen-song collection titled Like Food To My Soul, published in 2019.
And yet, as popular as "4 Fa 4" and "Happy Weight" became, their fame was eclipsed by the new single, "Knee Deep," a sensitive ballad sung by Zee Brownlow exploring the nuances between friendship and love. The tune blew up its YouTube page, gaining some 12 million views on its official music video. "Knee Deep" struck chords with the audience no southern soul song had accomplished since Bishop Bullwinkle's "Hell Naw To The Naw Naw," catapulting the Jay Morris Group to headliner status on the chitlin' circuit.
Now comes the Jay Morris Group's second album, Long Story Short, and it is a revelation. Both in style and substance, Long Story Short picks up where Like Food To My Soul left off, continuing the story of "Knee Deep" with the "bad dream" of thoughts of "her with another man". "I don't like the way that feels," Zee Brownlow sings. He doesn't want to be a "hater," but his feelings overwhelm him as he watches the new boyfriend kneeling in front of his former enamored with a ring in hand. "I want to see her happy," Zee confesses, "but not happy with him." "Still knee deep in my feelings," looking at things from the outside. The song is called "Knee Deep Part II," and it kicks off the new album.
But wait. The Jay Morris Group isn't lacking for inspiration by focusing on the past (and their most successful tune). They're just getting started. And if you thought the short stories contained in the songs on FOOD FOR MY SOUL couldn't possibly get any better, you would be wrong. In "My Baby Don't Love Me No More" Jay Morris not only describes another heartfelt relationship gone south but embeds it in an original instrumental track as good or better than "Knee Deep's". And just when you think the tune might flag, KMonique cuts in with a verse from the women's perspective. "They say a woman loves too early, and a man too late," and she goes on to explain her progress from romance to mere familiarity just the way women do in real life, and suddenly you realize this album is dealing with reality in ways you've seldom heard on record.
If there's one fear skeptics will entertain as this album proceeds, it's along the lines of sheer awe. Like, "I don't know how long they can keep it up..." Meaning: creating these vivid, intricately-told, above all realistic stories within songs. And yet, one by one, the new songs demolish those fears. "How Can You Love Me" is just what the album advertises, a "long story short". And although told from the man's perspective, the finely-toned KMonique comes in with the woman's point of view in the end. Those interludes---about as close to a formula as Jay Morris gets---provide exquisite contrast.
And for those worried that the melodies and instrumental tracks might get repetitive under all those airy harmonies and wordy monologues, "How Can You Love Me" has a great instrumental sound---an idiosyncratic guitar lick clucking over a traditional piano's chording, reserving the more familiar, high-pitched, Jay Morris-style keyboard/organ for the choruses.
Ironically, for a vocal trio who profess not to play any of the musical instruments on their records, the Jay Morris Group has an interesting, competent, live-feeling, instrumental sound. "Send Me That Cashapp" begins almost like an acapella track but morphs into a gracefully textured musical background.
"Still Pay The Bills" uses that familiar fuzzy, treble-clef, almost kazoo-like, keyboard-organ sound we associate with the group. The song is a typical southern soul message, but for the Jay Morris group it almost sounds overly simplistic. "Southern Soul Party," featuring Jeter Jones, sounds better now than when it came out a year ago.
But the latter tunes are relative filler in an album that obsesses in the day-to-day confrontations between the sexes, songs like "Give Me Some Credit" and "It Sounds Like I'm Lying". Is it any wonder the group has attracted legions of fans? Like some modern-day Dylan, they're talking about things that normally aren't addressed in song, and they make it work musically. And yet, so talky! So many words. So many thoughts. After awhile you're excused for thinking you're the Jay Morris Group's psychiatrist, psychologist and/or spiritual healer, with them sprawled on your couch, talking stream-of-consciousness.
But it's great. It's different. It's original. Not to make any literal comparisons, but it did remind me of when I was young, and how we looked forward to each new Beatles album because we knew it was going to be different and exciting. It's kinda like that with this sophomore disc from Jay Morris. You want to hear what they've come up with. Soulful, original, apparently without antecedent (although they pay tribute to southern soul stars at discreet moments), this music appears to be nothing less than a new blues for the younger generation.
---Daddy B. Nice
3.
Breaking News 1/29/22: BEST Ballad OF 2021 "Knee Deep Part II" / "My Baby Don't Love Me No More" by The Jay Morris Group. CLICK HERE.
Breaking News 1/29/22: BEST Female Vocalist Of 2021: K-Monique (of Jay Morris Group) ----- "My Baby Don't Love Me No More," "How Can You Love Me?" CLICK HERE.
Breaking News 1/29/22: Best Album of 2021: Long Story Short ----- Jay Morris Group. CLICK HERE.
1-2-21 JMG scores four singles in a single month. See Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles: January 2022.
Honorary "B" Side
"4 Fa 4"
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Knee Deep
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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4 Fa 4
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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Happy Weight
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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Cabbage Greens & Cornbread
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Group
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Full Course Meal (feat. L.J. Echols)
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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Lost My Mind
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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Thunderstorm
CD: Like Food To My Soul
Label: Jay Morris Media
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