RAUL MIDÓN
FRIDAY, JUNE 25 • 8 PM
WEST END CULTURAL CENTRE
$25 ADV./$28 DOOR
Search for “Raul Midón” on YouTube and you’ll find a clip of the New York-based vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2006. Performing “State of Mind,” the title track from his 2005 debut album, Midón unleashes a silky, soulful tenor and dazzling percussive guitar style—a syncopated, flamenco- and jazz-infused approach in which bass, harmony, and melodic lines emanate from the fretboard in one slap-happy storm. If that weren’t enough, Midón busts out his improvisational mouth horn technique, in which he creates a bebop “trumpet” solo entirely with his lips, earning himself a spontaneous burst of mid-song applause from the audience in the process. It’s a virtuosic performance, and one that reveals what has made Midón such an exciting artist to watch over the past few years.
Midón has always experienced the world differently than most. The son of an Argentinean father and an African-American mother, Raul was born prematurely in a rural hospital in Embudo, New Mexico, where he and his twin brother, Marco, were blinded as infants after spending time in an incubator without adequate eye protection. Marco now works for NASA as an electrical engineer, while Raul followed a musical path inspired by his father, a professional Argentine folkloric dancer.
After completing his final two years of high school at a Santa Fe prep school, Midón attended the University of Miami, which he selected for its prestigious jazz curriculum. He remained there after graduating and became an in-demand backup singer, working primarily in the Latin-pop world for such artists as Julio and Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, and Ricky Martin. In 2002, Midón walked away from his lucrative work as a back-up singer to pursue a career as a solo artist in New York City. Yet Midón’s first year in Manhattan didn’t pan out as he’d expected. His experience singing back-up on countless Latin-pop records didn’t mean automatic work, so he found a gig playing between sets by a Top 40 band at a club in the West Village, where he began to develop his show-stopping performance style.
In 2003, he was approached backstage to perform at Carnegie Hall along with Terence Blanchard, Angie Stone, Cassandra Wilson, and Bruce Hornsby. Midón received a standing ovation, a rave in the New York Times, and, eventually, an audience with legendary producer Arif Mardin, who signed him and co-produced State of Mind, which garnered critical accolades for its heady fusion of old-school soul, Latin, jazz, and timeless singer/songwriter folk-pop.
