This year’s edition of Nate Najar’s Jazz Holiday features a line-up of local and international jazz stars and promises to be one of the best shows of the year at the Palladium. The show is Thursday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 p.m.
Nate starts with some of our favorite local players, John Lamb, on bass, James Suggs on trumpet and drummer Jean Bolduc. He’s also bringing in two of the top jazz artists in the world, Adrian Cunningham, a virtuoso on sax, clarinet and flute, along with drummer and vibes master, Chuck Redd.
Adrian Cunningham
Cunningham brought his quintet to the Side Door last season and wowed the crowd with a his old-school approach to jazz, his charisma and his singing voice. He did the same as a special guest at Nate’s last Holiday show. He’s an Aussie who is at the forefront of swing dance movement that sweeping the world. He is the star of dozens of national and international jazz festivals that feature young people doing modern versions of the Lindy Hop.
He was the headliner and most talked about artists at the last three Suncoast Jazz Classics. I caught a set at the most recent Classic of Adrian celebrating the music of Ray Charles.
“Adrian’s a singular talent that combines strong musical values and a great sense of communication and style. When you see him play, you not only love everything he plays you want to have a beer with him afterwards,” Nate told me.
Chuck Redd has been working with Nate for more than a decade and he’s a perpetual favorite with our audiences and an in-demand session player on jazz recordings.
Daniela Soledade
So the horn section will be the dynamic duo of James Suggs on trumpet and Cunningham moving between flute, clarinet and sax.
But that’s not all the surprises Nate’s serving up on Dec. 12
He recently produced an album for Daniela Soledade, who hails from Rio. In a review, Downbeat dubbed Daniela a “master of classic samba and bossa nova.” She is a recent transplant to the U.S. and she’ll be joining this amazing band on Christmas classics, likely wiht a bossa feel. The show will also feature tunes from Nate’s holiday album for Woodward Avenue Records, Christmas in December, and excerpts from the Ellington Nutcracker.
And after looking over this line-up I realize that except for the time I’m out introducing the show, our Hough Hall stage will be filled with beautiful people!
Tickets are going fast for this one. Get yours by calling our box office at 727-822-3590 or follow this link for on-line tickets and information.
Our entire December lineup is supported this year by our friends at Duke Energy.
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