I caught up with Nate Najar and Daniela Soledade at Nate’s studio, just before recording starts on what will be Daniela’s first album.
They are recording the album this week and taking a break to play the Palladium on Thursday, April 18, with an all Brazilian show he’s calling From Rio With Love. You can follow this link for tickets and more information.
While it’s Daniela’s debut album, the Brazilian singer and guitarist is not new to the music business – particularly Bossa Nova. She great up immersed in it.
Daniela Soledade
“She is a direct link to the origins of Bossa Nova,” Nate told me. “I am very excited about this album and this show.”
Daniela’s grandfather, Paulo Soledade (soul-e-dage), was a well-known composer who wrote with all the great Brazilian artists, including Jobim. One of the songs he wrote with Jobim will be on the album and in Thursday night’s Palladium show.
“We’re recording Sonho Desfeito for the album. He wrote it with Jobim and I found the song and brought it to Daneila.”
Paulo also owned a Rio nightclub in the ‘60s called Zum Zum.
“It’s where all the Bossa Nova crowd hung out,” Nate said.
Her father learned guitar from Bossa Nova great Baden Powell.
For Daniela singing and playing just came naturally.
Nate Najar
“I’ve been around music all my life. I’ve been in the recording studio since I was 7,” she told me.
She attended the music conservatory in Rio as a teenager.
“When I moved to the states, our whole social scene was always around music,” she said.
Recently, she’s done gigs within the Brazilian community, playing guitar and singing. She worked steadily during two pregnancies.
Phill Fest, the Brazilian guitarist who regularly performs with Nate, introduced them and Nate asked Daneila to sing with him for his Jazz Holiday show at the Palladium.
He discovered a singer with a great sense of time and natural affinity for Bossa Nova.
“When she sings certain types of things, Daniela has the ability to make time stop,” Nate said.
So this Thursday’s show is called From Rio With Love, an all-Brazilian program. Thursday’s show also features Palladium favorites Jeff Rupert, on sax, and Eddie Metz on drums (Eddie tours with Nicki Parrott and Rossano Sportiello), and D.C.’s Tommy Cecil, on bass.
Nate says the band will be doing some songs from the new album “and a lot of classic Bossa Nova material.”
See you all there this Thursday.
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