Every few years an artist hits the Soul Music world with advance buzz strong enough to land him a major recording contract and out-of-the-box media interest. One of these stories for 2005 is Raul Midon.
Born in Embudo, New Mexico to an Argentinean professional dancer father and a New York-born mother (who died when Raul was very young), Midon was exposed to music his entire childhood. Despite being born blind, Midon took on multiple instruments early -- first drums, then guitar -- and his fascination with Argentinean percussion and American jazz and blues led to an interesting amalgamation of styles that later crept into his own music as an adult.
Midon attended college in Miami and then began a career as a studio musician and vocalist in the Latin music scene. After self-releasing the album Blind To Reality in 2001, Midon moved to New York and began playing the club circuit. He soon gained a significant following among fans of multiple genres attracted to his powerful live performances that mixed elements of Latin music, R&B and folk, all fronted by his strong, soulful voice. A fantastic video of an August 2003 concert at the Kennedy Center (available for viewing at the Kennedy Center Website) brought music media attention and Midon gained the reputation as the next great unsigned artist. After releasing a live EP in 2004 he was signed by Manhattan Records and spent the next year working on his first major label studio album, State of Mind.
While highly anticipated, State of Mind presents a minor dilemma for an artist who has gained a sterling reputation as a live performer and who has been singing many of the disc’s cuts in concert for several months. Fortunately, working with legendary producer Arif Mardin, Midon has created a studio album that has the feel of a small club acoustic performance. India.Arie popularized the term “acoustic soul,” but her work sounds like Moby compared to Midon’s sparse arrangements. State of Mind is all about Midon’s voice and guitar, with everything else taking a back seat. This works well in highlighting not only Midon’s soulful voice, but also his delightful lyrics, which are at times innocent (“Keep On Hoping,” “Mystery Girl”), at times idealistic (“Everybody,” “Never Get Enough”), and just about always worthwhile.
Musically, State of Mind has the raw but mellow immediacy of Bill Withers’ early recordings, with a combination of soul and latin influences that keep the disc interesting despite its abundance of slow songs. And Midon’s strong performance is buttressed by a sterling set of compositions, including his playful duet with Jason Mraz, “Keep On Hoping,” the soulful ballads “Mystery Girl” and “Suddenly” (which feature Midon’s warm falsetto), and the nice midtempo “If You’re Gonna Leave.” Perhaps best of all is “Expressions of Love,” a cut that sounds like a classic Stevie Wonder slow song, with Wonder even accompanying on harmonica.
It is unlikely that hip-hop-crazy popular radio will embrace an album like State of Mind, but over the past two years artists from Norah Jones to Gordon Chambers have shown that there is a sizable adult audience willing to bypass radio to satisfy their craving for intelligent, melodic music that is less temporal and more timeless. And State of Mind is an album that could have been made twenty years ago or twenty years from now and still be both relevant and memorable. Hopefully it is also the tipping point for the career of this talented young artist.
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