Nate Najar talks about Brazilian jazz and Bossa Nova guitars in advance of Thursday’s Side Door show

This Thursday, July 11, The Palladium’s Side Door Cabaret hosts a special evening of Brazilian jazz featuring two amazing acoustic guitarists.  Palladium favorite Nate Najar shares the stage with South Florida guitarist Phill Fest. Phill played and recorded Brazilian jazz with his late father, the renowned pianist Manfredo Fest. Manfredo spent the last years of his life living and playing in the Tampa Bay area.

 

Latin Jazz lovers will also want to check out La Lucha, featuring singer Jun Bustamante, on Saturday, July 13. More on that show in the blog later this week.

 

Palladium summer intern Jon Freeman interviewed Nate in advance of the show:

 

 

Who have been your biggest influences, both as an early developing artist and in recent years?

 

Charlie Byrd is probably at the top of the list— also Duke Ellington, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Julian Bream.  Jobim was Brazilian and largely responsible for the proliferation of Bossa Nova and Samba into the mainstream in the second half of the twentieth century.

Did you start out on classical guitar?

 

 No, I started out on electric guitar. I started playing at 10 or 11– I was playing blues, trying to do what the local blues people did. I saw these guys playing three chords, – doo-dee-diddly doo- I thought to myself “I want to do that.” But soon I changed direction.

 

How did you get together with Phill Fest? What has the collaboration been like?

 

Phill’s father, Manfredo was one of the most well-known Brazilian piano players— he passed away in the late 90’s,  after having a lot of success, and made his home in Clearwater in the last part of his life.

 

I never met Phill because I was young— I had heard him on the radio, though.  Phil lives in South Florida now.

I love Brazilian music. I love the guitar, and Phill is a wonderful guitar player who comes out of that tradition. We loved collaborating, and it felt good to do a concert at home base.  Phill and I have a lot of music to make going forward.

 

What styles and sounds are you experimenting with these days?

 

This particular show, we’re focusing on a few different aspects of Brazilian Sounds, Bossa Nova, Samba, and Baion, Choro.  Baion is a rhythm from the North of Brazil– characterized by a certain triplet beat, a driving sort of sound. Choro is an older musical style– the best analogy to Choro in North American music would be rag time. It’s the street music of Rio de Janeiro.  It was widely played in the first half of the twentieth century.

 

What material will you be playing at the upcoming Palladium concert?

 
I’ll be playing stuff from all over— I might do a few things from the new record, and we’ll definitely do some of the much-loved Bossa Nova classics as well as many contemporary-type sounds including Samba Jazz.

 

Bossa Nova Guitars, featuring Nate Najar, Phill Fest, Mark Feinman (drums) and Alejandro Arenas (bass) is Thursday, July 11 at 8 p.m. in the Side Door Cabaret. For tickets and information visit www.mypalladium.org or call the box office at 727 822-3590.