Liana Flores Plays And so it goes…
Liana Flores releases And so it goes… on Friday, September 4.
On Thursday the 3rd she’s in Crown Heights, playing it start to finish on our system. Then she stays and plays records: her own Brazilian favorites, pulled off our shelves and hers.
It’s her first record for Verve Records since flower of the soul in 2024, and for most of the room it will be a first listen.
Bossa nova meets pop
Verve describes the EP as bossa nova and Brazilian pop with an indie, folk-y spin — finger-picked guitar and what the label calls gossamer bossa vocals at one end, upbeat funk inflections and Carole King-shaped folk storytelling at the other.
Flores puts it more plainly. “This record is the story of the country girl moving to the city,” she said when it was announced. “It’s bossa nova meets pop, inspired by the people, relationships and glamour of city life.”
Norfolk, by way of Brazil
Flores was born in London to a Brazilian mother and a British father, and grew up in rural South Norfolk, so the bossa nova came from home and everything else came from somewhere much quieter.
She started out posting ukulele covers to YouTube under the name Ukulili. In 2019 she put out a song called “rises the moon.” But two years later it went around TikTok, and by February 2024 it had been certified platinum. She signed to Verve later that year.
She cites Caetano Veloso, Astrud Gilberto and Gal Costa on one side, Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake and Joan Baez on the other. Both halves of that lineage sing barely above a murmur, and she has inherited the charm of it from both sides at once.
flower of the soul
Her debut album arrived in June 2024, her first full-length for Verve after two independent EPs and a run of singles.
If you haven’t heard it, come early. It’s the record most of the room will know her by.
Doors 5:30. Kenneth Dillon from 7:30.
Doors at 5:30, and the listening happens early, while the room is still quiet enough to hear it properly.
After the EP, Flores plays her own selections. At 7:30 guest selector Kenneth Dillon takes over for the rest of the evening.
Free. No cover, no ticket, no minimum. Seating is limited by the size of the room.
What a jazz kissa is
Kissa Kissa is a Japanese-style jazz kissa in Crown Heights: one room, all vinyl, all jazz, built around a sound system good enough to justify sitting still for.
People talk here. They just talk at the volume of the room, which is lower than most bars, and nobody has to shout over the music to be heard.
An advance listen with Liana Flores
667 Franklin Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Free, no cover.
