October has two advance listens in it: Ahmad Jamal’s electric 1973 record four days before its Verve Vault reissue, and Samara Joy’s first live release four days before it comes out. Between them is a Jimmy Smith set from 1965 that nobody heard for sixty-one years, and the month closes with Nina Simone the week before Halloween.
Every record plays on our audiophile hi-fi system. The Verve 70 cocktail is available all evening. Kissa Kissa opens at 5:30, and the needle drops around 7:45.
This Month on the Turntable
Two advance listens, one tape from a vault, one album everybody knows a song from.
Ahmad Jamal spent the fifties and sixties perfecting the trio as a way of leaving space, and Miles Davis was among the people taking notes. By 1973 he had moved to 20th Century Records, and his first album for the label sounds nothing like the Pershing Lounge.
He is on electric piano here, with Richard Evans arranging and conducting an orchestra around him. The record opens with a nearly ten-minute reading of War’s “The World Is a Ghetto” and takes in Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” The Verve Vault reissue was cut all-analog from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, and it is out October 9th — we play it four days early.
Jimmy Smith made the Hammond B-3 a jazz instrument, first at Blue Note in the fifties and then at Verve, where he was a hit-maker by the mid-sixties. Nearly every jazz organist since has had to start from what he did.
In March 1965 he took a trio into the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, with Quentin Warren on guitar and a young Billy Hart on drums, and somebody taped it. The set — “The Champ,” “The Sermon,” “Goldfinger” among it — stayed unreleased until the Verve Record Club pressed 2,500 copies this fall, mastered by Ryan Smith, with liner notes by Mike LeDonne.
Samara Joy grew up in the Bronx in a family of gospel singers and came to jazz at SUNY Purchase. She has made two albums for Verve, Linger Awhile and Portrait.
This is her first live release, recorded during her sold-out April run at the Blue Note in Los Angeles with her septet. Five tracks, among them “’Round Midnight,” “Yesterdays” and “Lush Life.” It is out October 23rd; we have it on the Monday before.
Nina Simone trained as a classical pianist and never stopped sounding like one, whatever she sang. In the mid-sixties she made seven albums for Philips, now part of the Verve catalog.
This one came out in 1965, arranged and conducted by Hal Mooney and Horace Ott. It is the record with her “Feeling Good,” “Ne me quitte pas” and the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins title track. Five days before Halloween, it seemed right.
Two days before it comes out, we play the new Verve Remixed record on its own, between Nina Simone’s originals: eight remixes from HAAi, Solomun, Mochakk, Austin Millz and others. Omer’s Spell On You, a Sazerac riff named for the song, is on for the night. Needle drops at 7.
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.
Every Monday in October
667 Franklin Avenue · Crown Heights, Brooklyn
No cover. No reservations required but always encouraged.
