July’s four Mondays run the full range of what made Verve essential in the 1960s — from the orchestral adventure of Gil Evans to the intimate Brazilian lilt of Astrud Gilberto, with Freddie Hubbard’s hard bop fire and Shelly Manne’s drumming intelligence filling out the middle of the month.
Each session plays through our audiophile hi-fi system. The Verve 70 cocktail is available all evening. Kissa Kissa opens at 6.
This Month on the Turntable
Four records. Four Mondays. Each one played on vinyl the way it was meant to be heard.
Gil Evans was one of the great orchestral minds in jazz — an arranger and composer who dissolved the boundary between jazz and classical music decades before the term “third stream” existed. The Individualism of Gil Evans, recorded in 1963 and 1964, is his most searching studio work: a suite of tone poems built from exotic instrumentation, unconventional voicings, and a sense of space that still sounds radical today. Evans wasn’t scoring jazz. He was composing something new.
The Verve Vault reissue restores this landmark record to vinyl. July 6 is for listeners who want to hear what jazz sounds like when it refuses to stay inside its own walls.
Freddie Hubbard arrived fully formed. By the time he recorded The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard in 1962, he had already played on Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and John Coltrane’s Olé — and yet his own debut as a leader showed a different side: a hard bop trumpeter of enormous technical gifts and deep swing feeling, anchored in the tradition but clearly pointed somewhere new.
The Verve Acoustic Sounds reissue brings this debut to vinyl before its official street date — an early listening session two weeks ahead of release. July 13 is your first chance to hear this one the way it was meant to be heard: loud, through analog equipment, in a room built for serious listening.
Shelly Manne was one of the most versatile and swinging drummers in jazz — a West Coast fixture who brought intelligence and taste to everything he touched. 2, 3, 4, recorded in 1962, is a drum showcase in the best possible sense: Manne playing in duo, trio, and quartet settings with Coleman Hawkins, Hank Jones, and others, demonstrating that the drums can lead without dominating, and that rhythm can be the most melodic thing in the room.
The Verve Acoustic Sounds reissue arrives just days after this early listening session — a rare chance to hear a pre-release pressing in the right context. July 20 is four days before the official street date.
Astrud Gilberto’s voice is one of the most distinctive in American popular music — breathy, unhurried, and possessed of an intimacy that no other singer has successfully imitated. The Shadow of Your Smile, recorded in 1965, is a collection of ballads and bossa nova standards that showcases exactly what made her voice so singular: the sense that she’s singing directly to you, and only to you, in a very quiet room.
The Verve Acoustic Sounds reissue restores the full warmth of this recording to vinyl, pressed at RTI from original analog sources. July ends with Gilberto — which is exactly the right way to close out a summer month of listening.
What Is Verve Mondays?
Verve Mondays is a year-long weekly listening event series at Kissa Kissa in partnership with Verve Records, celebrating the legendary label’s 70th anniversary. Every Monday from April through December, a different Verve reissue becomes the evening’s centerpiece — played on vinyl, through our audiophile hi-fi system, in Brooklyn’s only traditional jazz kissa. 39 Mondays. 39 reissues. One historic series.
The Verve 70 — an exclusive Monday-night-only signature cocktail (Song Cai floral gin, Prosecco, housemade sage lavender syrup, lemon) — is available all evening. Pair it with our full menu for the complete experience.
Each month’s lineup will be announced here and on our Instagram in advance. Read the full series announcement for the complete story behind the partnership.
Verve Mondays Continue Every Monday in July
667 Franklin Avenue · Crown Heights, Brooklyn
No cover. No reservations required but always encouraged.
