"One-man Band" Raul Midón at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts October 24

"One-man Band" Raul Midón at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts October 24



"...Midón, a one-man band who turns a guitar into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus ... a three-way fusion of Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin and José Feliciano." The New York Times

Passion drives the complex musical vision of Raul Midón; an audacious passion that embraces essential contradictions, fuses musical genres and blooms into a surprising and arresting sound. Midón brings his landscape of music to Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts Friday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m.

Since he burst onto the scene in 2005 with his vibrantly original debut album, "State of Mind," the New Mexico-born, New York-based writer, vocalist and guitarist is reinventing pop music. "State of Mind" garnered critical accolades for its heady fusion of old-school soul, timeless pop, Latin and jazz, and, prior to its completion, sufficiently intrigued Stevie Wonder to the point that Wonder, himself, appeared on one track.

Midón's follow-up CD, "A World Within a World," is, on one level, an expression of the expansive interior realm that he has created with his imagination. Blind from birth, Midón appreciates multi-level expression. As he puts it, "I've always felt at a disadvantage as someone who has never seen, in that writing is very visual and image-driven… what I realized is that you have to write from what you know and because people also hear, touch and feel, hopefully, they'll be able to relate to these songs...(the song, "The More That I Know") is very much about my experience." Midón is sensitive to the dangers the world faces and references to the perilous world we live in abound on "A World Within a World." In the song, "Tembererana," which employs elements of Argentinean music, the artist pits images of the threat of looming annihilation against "the power of creation."

The son of an African-American mother and an Argentinean father, Midón has been a passionate music lover for as long as he can remember and began playing drums at the age of 4 before shifting his focus to the guitar. After graduation from the University of Miami, which he attended for its excellent jazz program, he was in demand as a back-up singer and worked primarily on Latin projects.

New York Times critic Stephen Holden wrote of Midón's skills, "...he displayed a virtuosity that seemed effortless. His supple vocal phrasing echoed Mr. Wonder's in some songs; in others he turned his voice into a trumpet, then traded playful back-and-forth dialogue between the simulated horn and his natural voice... Mr. Midón ... made a persuasive case for personal, accessible music oblivious to trends: real music as opposed to fashionable pop sound."

Tickets are $35, $30 and are available online at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. For further information, visit fairfield.edu/quick

Posted On: 10-06-2008 10:10 AM

Volume: 41 Number: 81