St. Pete based guitarist Nate Najar has been part of the Palladium family since before I came onboard in 2007. Six years ago, Brazilian singer Daniela Soledade, joined Nate as his musical and romantic partner.
The duo meets my criteria for playing the Palladium – they make great music and their shows sell tickets!
So, when Nate asked about presenting their Love and Bossa Nova duo show in the spring of 2026, I quickly booked a date. Normally, a small show like this one would fit the Side Door nightclub, but Nate wanted to play Hough Hall, where the camera angles were better. His plan was to record the show on video and audio.
“We want to release it as a live album,” Nate told me.
The Love and Bossa Nova show happened in Hough Hall on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, and drew an enthusiastic crowd of almost 300.
Videos of individual songs from the show are available on YouTube now. Watch one of the performances here. The album – Love and Bossa Nova – Live at the Palladium – drops today, Nov. 6, on all streaming services.
Ironically, the first time we booked Nate and Daniela for a duo show was for the spring of 2020. Like all the other shows on our calendar during that pandemic spring – the show never happened.
“When the show was cancelled, we decided to do it from our balcony,” Nate told me over coffee this week. “We went on to do the show every Friday night for 59 weeks.”
They streamed the show on Facebook Live and YouTube, and audiences soon found it. A few weeks in Nate added the title: Love and Bossa Nova.
“I got lucky with that branding,” Nate said. “It just popped into my head. It really works.”
When theaters opened again, Nate and Daniela took the show on the road. They’ve continued to play the Palladium, but mostly in larger band settings. Love and Bossa Nova is a stripped-down show. Daniela sings, plays guitar, percussion and flute, and Nate plays his finger-style acoustic guitar. They’ve performed in large and small rooms around the U.S., at numerous jazz festivals, and on a couple of tours of Europe.
“It’s funny, the show works in tiny rooms, and it works in big rooms.” Nate said.
The 17 songs on the album are the same songs they play on tour.
“There’s a fair amount of classic bossa nova on here and some deep cuts of old samba and two original songs. We fall out of bed doing these songs,” Nate said.
My favorite part of the new album is the line on the cover that says: “Special thanks to Paul Wilborn.”
